\23Q 


S-mS 


■g 


LETTERS 


ON 


THE  SUBJECT 


/  OF 


■THE  CATHOILICS, 


TO 


MY  BROTHER  ABRAHAM^ 


WHO 


LIVES  IN  THE  COUNTRY 


BV  PETER  PLYMLEr, 


FIRST  AMERICAN  FROM  THE  ELEVENTH  ENGLISH 

EDITION. 


BALTIMORE 


PRINTED  FOR  BERNARD  DORNIN,  and  sold  by  him  at 

HIS  ROMAN  CATHOLIC   LIBRARY,  No.  30,  BALTIMORE- 
STREET, 


1809. 


a,  DOBBIN  !c  M  JKPHY,  PEINTBBS. 


LETTERS 


ON  THE   SUBJECT  OF 


-.THE  CATHOLICS. 


LETTER  L 


DEAH  ABRAHAM, 

A  WORTHIER  and  better  man  than  yourself  does  not  ex- 
ist ;  but  I  have  always  told  you,  from  the  time  of  our 
boyhood,  that  you  were  a  bit  of  a  goose.  Your  parochial 
affairs  are  governed  with  exemplary  order  and  regularity  ; 
you  are  as  powerful  in  the  Vestry  as  Mr.  Perceval  will  be 
in  the  House  of  Commons — and  I  must  say,  with  much 
more  reason ;  nor  do  I  know  any  church  where  the  faces 
and  smock-frocks  of  the  congregation  are  so  clean,  or  their 
eyes  so  uniformly  directed  to  the  preacher.  There  is 
another  point,  upon  which  I  will  do  you  ample  justice  ; 
and  that  is,  that  the  eyes  so  directed  towards  you  are  wide 
open  :  for  the  rustic  has,  in  general,  good  principles, 
though  he  cannot  controulhis  animal  habits;  and  however 
loud  he  rtiay  snore,  his  face  is  perpetually  turned  to\iards 
the  fountain  of  orthodoxy. 

Having  done  you  this  act  of  justice,  I  shall  proceed^ 
according  to  our  ancient  intimacy  and  familiarity,  to  ex- 
plain to  you  my  opinions  about  the  Catholics,  and  to  reply 
to  yours. 

In  the  first  place,  my  sweet  Abraham,  the  Pope  it  not 
landed — nor  are  there  any  curates  sent  out  after  him — nor 
has  he  been  hid  at  Saint  Alban's  by  the  Dowager  Lady 
Spencer — nor  dined  privately  at  Holland  House — nor  been 
seen  near  Dropmore.  If  these  fears  exist  (which  I  do  not 
believe)  they  exist  only  in  the  mind  of  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer,  they  emanate  from  his  zeal  for  the  protes- 
tant  interest :  and  though  they  reflect  the  highest  honour 
upon  the  delicate  irritability  of  his  faith,  they  must  cer- 
tainly be  cojisidered  as  more  ambiguous  proofs  of  the  sa^ 


103376 


fe 


nity  and  vigor  of  his  understanding.  By  this  time,  how- 
ever, the  best  informed  clergy  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
metropolis  are  convinced  that  the  rumor  is  without  foun- 
dai'oii :  and  though  the  Pope  is  probably  hovering  about 
our  coast  in  a  fishiag  smack,  it  is  most  likely  he  will  fall 
a  prey  to  the  vigilance  of  our  cruisers;  and  it  is  certain 
he  has  not  yet  polluted  the  Protestantism  of  our  soil. 

Exactly  in  the  same  manner,  the  story  of  the  wooden 
gods  seized  at  Charing  Cross,  by  an  order  from  the  Fo- 
Yo-^n  Office,  turns  out  to  be  without  the  shadow  of  a  loun- 
dation  :  instead  o'  the  angels,  and  archangels,  mentioned 
bv  the  informer,  nothing  was  discovered  but  a  wooden 
image  ol  Lord  Mulgrave  going  down  to  Chatham  as  a 
head-piece  for  the  Spanker  gun-vessel  :  it  was  an  exact 
resemblance  of  his  Lordship,  in  his  military  uniform  ;  and 
therefore  as  little  like  a  god  as  can  well  be  imagined. 

Having  set  your  fears  at  rest,  as  to  the  extent  of  the 
conspiracy  formed  against  the  Protestant  religion,  I  will 
now  come  to  the  argument  itself. 

You  say,  these  men  interpret  the  scriptures  in  an  unor- 
thodox manner  ;  and  that  they  eat  their  god. — Very  likely. 
All  this  may  seem  very  important  to  you,  who  live  four- 
teen miles  from  a  market-town,  and,  from  long  residence 
upon  your  hving,  are  become  a  kind  of  holy  vegetable, 
and,  in  a  theological  sense,  it  is  highly  important.  But 
I  want  soldiers  and  sailors  for  the  State  ;  I  want  to  make 
a  greater  use  than  it  now  can  do  of  a  poor  country  full  of 
iiien  ;  I  want  to  render  the  military  service  popular  among 
the  Irish  ;  to  check  the  power  of  France  ;  to  make  every 
possible  exertion  for  the  safety  of  Europe,  which  in  twenty 
years  time  will  be  nothing  but  a  mass  of  French  slaves  : 
and  then  you  and  ten  thousand  other  such  boobies  as  you, 
call  out — "  For  God's  sake,  do  not  thi-k  of  raising  ca- 
<='  valry  and  infantry  in  Ireland  ! — They  interpret  the 
*'  episile  to  Timothy  in  a  different  manner  from  what  we 
"  do  '.—They  eat  a  bit  of  wafer  every  Sunday,  which  they 
*'  call  their  God  !" — I  wish  to  my  soul,  they  would  eat 
you,  and  such  reasoners  as  you  are.  What !  when  Turk, 
Jew,  Heretic,  Infidel,  Catholic,  Protestant,  are  all  com- 
bined against  this  country  ;  when  men  of  every  religious 
f)ersuasion  and  no  religious  persuasion  ;  when  the  popu- 
ation  of  half  the  globe  is  up  in  arms  against  us;  are  we 
to  stand  examining  our  generals  and  armies  as  a  bishop 
examines  a  candidate  for  holy  orders  ?  and  to  sufler  no 
one  to  bleed  for  England,  who  does  not  agree  with  you 


about  the  2d  of  Timothy  ?  You  talk  about  the  Catholics  I 
If  you  and  vour  brotherhood  have  been  able  to  persuade 
the  country  into  a  continuation  of  this  grossest  of  all  ab- 
surdities, you  have  ten  times  the  power  which  the  Catho- 
lic clergy  ever  had  in  their  best  days.  Lewis  XIV.  when 
he  revoked  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  never  thought  of  pre- 
venting the  Protestants  from  fighting  his  battles  ;  and 
gained  accordingly  some  of  his  most  splendid  victories  by 
the  talen  s  of  his  Protestant  generals.  No  power  in  En- 
rope,  but  yourselves,  has  ever  thought,  for  these  hundred 
years  past,  of  asking  whether  a  bayonet  is  Catholic,  or 
Presbyterian,  or  Lutheran  ;  but,  whether  it  is  sharp  and 
well  lemjjered.  A  bigot  delights  in  public  ridicule  ;  for 
he  bcg'nu  to  think  he  is  a  martyr.  I  can  promise  you  the 
full  enjoyment  of  this  pleasure,  from  one  extremity  of 
Europe  to  the  other. 

I  am  as  disgusted  with  the  theology*  of  the  Roman  Ca* 
tholic  religion  as  you  can  be  :  and  no  man  who  talks  about 
such  theology  shall  ever  tithe  the  product  of  the  earth  ; 
nor  shall  he  meddle  with  the  ecclesiastical  establishmeni: 
in  any  shape  ; — but  what  have  I  to  do  with  theology, 
when  the  object  is  to  elect  the  mayor  of  a  count\ 
town,  or  to  ap  loint  a  colonel  of  a  marching  regiment  r 
Will  a  man  discharge  the  solemn  impertinences  of  the 
one  office  with  less  zeal,  or  shrink  from  the  bloody  bold- 
ness of  the  other  with  greater  timidity  f  I  am  sorrv  there 
•  should  be  such  folly  in  the  world,  but  I  should  be  ten 
times  a  greater  fool  than  he  is,  if  1  refused  to  lead  him 
out  against  the  enemies  of  the  State,  till  he  had  made  a 
solenm  protestation,  that  the  crumpet  was  spiritless,  and 
0  the  nuifiin  nothing  but  an  human  muffin.  Your  whole 
argument  is  wrong:  the  State  has  nothing  whatever  to 
do  with  theological  errors,  which  do  not  violate  the  com- 
mon rules  of  morality,  and  militate  against  the  fair  pt)vvcr 
of  the  ruler.  It  leaves  all  these  errors  to  you,  and  to 
such  as  you.  You  have  every  tenth  porker  in  your  i^arish 
for  refuting  them  ;  and  take  care  that  you  are  vigilant  and 
logical  in  the  task. 

I  love  the  church  as  well  as  you  do,  but  j^ou  totally  mis- 
take the  nature  of  an  establishment,  when  you  contend 
that  it  ought  to  be  connected  nvith  the  military  and  civil 
career  of  every  individual  in  the  State.     It  is  quite  right 

f 

*  The  editor  has  taken  the  liberty  of  omitting' an  irreverent  passage  of 

Jhe  authoi-  on  the  sacrament  of  the  Eucharist. 


that  there  should  be  one  clergyman  to  every  parish,  inter- 
preting the  scriptures  after  a  particular  manner,  ruled  by  a 
regular  hierarchy,  and  paid  with  a  rich  proportion  of  hay- 
cocks and  wheatsheafs.     When  I  have  laid  this  founda- 
tion for  a  rational  religion  in  the  State — when  I  have  plac- 
ed ten  thousand  well  educated  men  in  different  parts  of  the 
kingdom  to  preach  it  up,   and  compelled  every  body  to 
pay  them  whether  they  hear  them  or  not — I  have  taken 
<uch  measures  as  I  know  must  always  procure  an  immense 
majority  in  favor  of  the  established  church  :  but  I  can  go 
no  farther.     I  cannot  set  up  a  civil  inquisition,  and  sayto 
one,  you  shall  not  be  a  butcher,  because  you  are  not  ortho- 
dox ;  and  prohibit  another  from  brewing, and  a  third  from  ad- 
ministering the  law,  and  a  fourth  from  defending  the  coun- 
try.    If  common  justice  did  not  prohibit  me  from  such  a. 
conduct,  common  sense   would.     The  advantage  to   be 
gained  by  quitting  the  heresy,  would  make  it  shameful  to 
abandon  it :  and  men  who  had  once  left  the  church,  would 
continue  in  such  a  state  of  alienation  from  a  poi.iit  of  ho- 
?ior,  and  transmit  that  spirit  to  their  latest  posterity. — 
This  is  just  the  effect  your  disqualifying  laws  have  pro- 
duced.    They  have  fed  Dr.  Rees  and  Dr.  Kippis ;  crowd- 
ed the  congregation  of  the  Old  Jewry  to  suffocation,  and 
enabled  every  sublapsarian  and  superlapsarian  and  semi- 
pelagian  clergyman  to  build  himself  a  neat  brick  chapel, 
and  live  with  some  distant  resemblance  to  the  state  of  a 
gentleman. 

You  say  that  the  King's  coronation  oath  will  not  allow 
him  to  consent  to  any  relaxation  of  the  Catholic  laws. — 
Why  not  relax  the  Chatholic  laws  as  well  as  the  laws 
against  Protestant  dissenters  ?  If  one  is  contrary  to  his 
oath,  the  other  must  be  so  too  :  for  the  spirit  of  the  oath 
is,  to  defend  the  church  establishment,  which  the  Quaker 
and  the  Presbyterian  differ  from  as  much,  or  more  than  the 
Catholic ;  and  yet  his  Majesty  has  repealed  the  corpora- 
tion and  test  act  in  Ireland,  and  done  more  for  the  Catho- 
lics of  both  kingdoms  than  had  been  done  for  them  since 
the  reformation.  In  1778,  the  ministers  said  nothing 
about  the  royal  conscience  ;  in  1793*  no  conscience  ;  in 
1804  no  conscience  :  the  common  feeling  of  humanity 
and  justice  then  seem  to  have  had  their  fullest  influence 
upon  the  advisers  of  the  crown  :  but  in  1807— a  year,  I 

*  These  feelings  of  humanity  and  justice  were  .it  some  periods  a  little 
.quickened  by  the  representatians  of  4(1000  armed  volunteers. 


suppose,  eminently  fruitful  in  moral  and  religious  scruples 
(as  some  years  are  fruitful  in  apples,  some  in  hops) — it  is 
contended  by  the  well  paid  John  Bowles,  and  by  Mr.  Per- 
ceval (who  tried  to  be  well  paid)  that  that  is  now  perjury 
wjiich  we  had  hitherto  called  policy  and  benevolence  1 
Religious  liberty  has  never  made  such  a  stride  as  under 
the  reign  of  his  present  Majesty  ;  nor  is  there  any  instance 
in  the  annals  of  our  history,  where  so  many  infamous  and 
damnable  laws  have  been  repealed,  as  those  against  the 
Catholics,  which  have  been  put  an  end  to  by  him  :  and 
then,  at  the  close  of  this  noble  and  liberal  policy,  his  ad- 
visers discover  that  the  very  measures  of  concession  and 
indulgence,  or  (to  use  my  own  language)  the  measures  of 
Justice,  which  he  has  been  pursuing  through  the  whole  of 
his  reign,  are  contrary  to  the  oath  he  takes  at  its  com- 
mencement !  That  oath  binds  his  Majesty  not  to  consent 
to  any  measure  contrary  to  the  interest  of  the  established 
church  ;  but  who  is  to  judge  of  the  tendency  of  each 
particular  measure  ?  Not  the  King  alone  ;  it  can  never  be 
the  intention  of  this  law,  that  the  King,  who  listens  to  the 
advice  of  his  parliament  upon  a  road  bill,  should  reject  it 
upon  the  most  important  of  all  measures  :  whatever  be 
his  own  private  judgment  of  the  tendency  of  any  ecclesias- 
tical bill,  he  complies  most  strictly  with  his  oath,  if  he  is 
guided  in  that  particular  point  by  the  advice  of  his  parlia- 
ment, who  may  be  presumed  to  understand  its  tendency 
better  than  the  king  or  any  other  individual.  You  say, 
if  parliament  had  been  unanimous  in  their  opinion  of  the 
absolute  necessity  for  Lord  Howick's  bill,  and  the  King 
had  thought  it  pernicious,  he  would  have  been  perjured  if 
he  had  not  rejected  it.  I  say,  on  the  contrary,  his  Majesty 
would  have  acted  in  the  most  conscientious  manner,  and 
have  complied  most  scrupulously  with  his  oath,  if  he 
had.  sacrificed  his  own  opinion  to  the  opinion  of  the  great 
council  of  the  nation  ;  because  the  probability  was,  that 
tsuch  opinion  was  better  than  his  own,  and  upon  the  same 
principle  in  common  life,  you  give  up  your  opinion  to 
youi*  physician,  and  to  your  lawyer  and  your  builder. 

You  admit,  this  bill  did  not  compel  the  King  to  elect 
Catholic  officers,  but  only  gave  him  the  option  of  doing 
so  if  he  pleased  ;  but  you  add,  that  the  King  was  right  in 
not  trusting  such  dangerous  power  tohimself  orto  his  suc- 
cessors. Now,  you  are  either  to  suppose  that  the  King  for 
the  time  being  has  a  zeal  for  the  Catholic  establishment,  or 
tha,t  he  has  not.     If  he  has  not,  where  is  the  danger  of  giv- 


8 

ing  such  an  option  ?  If  you  suppose  that  he  may  be  influ- 
enced b}^  such  an  admiration  of  the  Catholic  religion, 
why  did  his  present  Majesty,  in  the  years  1804,  consent  to 
that  bill  which  empowered  the  crown  to  station  ten  thou- 
sand Catholic  soldiers  in  any  part  of  the  kingdom,  and 
placed  them  absolutely  at  the  disposal  of  the  crown  ?  If 
the  King  of  England  for  the  time  being  is  a  good  Protes- 
tant, there  can  be  no  danger  in  making  the  Catholic  eligible 
to  any  thing  :  if  he  is  not,  no  power  can  possibly  be  so 
dangerous  as  that  conveyed  by  the  bill  last  quoted  ; 
to  which,  in  point  of  peril.  Lord  Howick's  bill  is  a  mere 
joke.  But  the  real  fact  is,  one  bill  opened  a  door  to  his 
Majesty's  advisers  for  trick,  jobbing,  and  intrigue  ;  the 
other  did  not. 

Besides,  what  folly  to  talk  to  me  of  an  oath,  which,  un- 
der all  possible  circumstances,  is  to  prevent  the  relaxation 
of  the  Catholic  laws  !  for  such  a  solemn  appeal  to  God  sets 
all  conditions  and  contingencies  at  defiance.  Suppose 
Bonaparte  were  to  retrieve  the  only  very  great  blunder  he 
has  made,  and  were  to  succeed,  after  repeated  trials,  in 
making  an  impression  upon  Ireland,  do  you  think  we 
should  hear  any  thing  of  the  impediment  of  a  coronation 
oath  ?  or  would  the  spirit  of  this  country  tolerate  for  an 
hour  such  ministers,  and  such  unheard  of  nonsense,  if  the 
most  distant  prospect  existed  of  conciliating  the  Catho- 
lics by  every  species  even  of  the  most  abject  concession  ? 
And  yet,  if  your  argument  is  good  for  any  thing,  the  co- 
ronation oath  ought  to  reject,  at  such  a  moment,  every 
tendency  to  conciliation,  and  to  bind  Ireland  for  ever  to 
the  crown  of  France. 

I  found  in  your  letter  the  usual  remark  about  fire,  fag- 
got, and  bloody  Mary.  Are  you  aware,  my  dear  Priest, 
that  there  were  as  many  persons  put  to  death  for  religious 
opinions  under  the  mild  Elizabeth,  as  under  the  bloody 
Mary  ?  The  reign  of  the  former  was,  to  be  sure,  ten  times 
as  long  ;  but  I  only  mention  the  fact,  merely  to  shew  you 
that  something  depends  upon  the  age  in  which  men  live, 
as  well  as  on  their  religious  opinions.  Three  hundred 
years  ago,  men  burnt  and  hanged  each  other  for  these  opi- 
nions. Time  has  softened  Catholic  as  well  as  Protestant. 
They  both  required  it :  though  each  perceives  only  his 
own  improvement,  and  is  blind  to  that  of  the  other.  We 
are  all  the  creatures  of  circumstances.  I  know  not  a  kin- 
der and  better  man  than  j^ourself ;  but  you  (if  you  had 
lived  in  those  times)  would  certainly  have  roasted  your 


9 

Catholic  :  and  I  promise  you,  if  the  first  exciter  of  this 
religious  mob  had  been  as  powerful  then  as  he  is  now,  you 
would  soon  have  been  elevated  to  the  mitre.  I  do  not  go 
the  length  of  saying,  that  the  world  has  suffered  as  much 
from  Protestant  as  from  Catholic  persecution  ;  far  from 
it :  but  you  should  remember,  that  the  Catholics  had  all 
the  power,  when  the  idea  first  started  up  in  the  world,  that 
there  could  be  two  modes  of  faith,  and  that  it  was  much 
more  natural  they  should  attempt  to  crush  this  diversity  of 
opinion  by  great  and  cruel  efforts,  than  that  the  Protes- 
tants should  rage  against  those  who  differed  from  them, 
when  the  very  basis  of  their  system  was  complete  freedom 
in  all  spiritual  matters. 

I  cannot  extend  my  letter  any  further  at  present,  but 
you  shall  soon  hear  from  me  again.  You  tell  me,  1  am  a 
party  man.  I  hope  I  shall  always  be  so,  when  I  see  my 
country  in  the  hands  of  a  pert  London  joker  and  a  second 
rate  lawyer.  Of  the  first,  no  other  good  is  known  than 
that  he  makes  pretty  Latin  verses  ;  the  second  seems  to  me 
to  have  the  head  of  a  country  parson  and  the  tongue  of 
an  Old  Bailey  lawyer. 

If  I  could  see  good  measures  pursued,  I  care  not  a  far- 
thing who  is  in  power  ;  but  I  have  a  passionate  love  for 
common  justice  and  for  common  sense,  and  I  abhor  and 
despise  every  man  who  builds  up  his  political  fortune  upon 
their  ruin. 

God  bless  you,  reverend  Abraham,  and  defend  you 
from  the  Pope,  and  all  of  us  from  that  administration,  who 
seek  power  by  opposing  a  measure,  which  Burke,  Pitt, 
and  Fox,  all  considered  as  absolutely  necessary  to  the  ex~ 
istence  of  the  country. 


LETTEPt  II. 


Dear  Abraham^ 

The  Catholic  not  respect  an  oath  :  why  not  ?  Whcit 
Upon  earth  has  kept  him  out  of  Parliament,  or  excluded 
him  from  all  the  offices  whence  he  is  excluded,  but  his  re- 
spect for  oaths  ?  There  is  no  lavv  whicli  prohibits  a  Catho» 
lie  to  sit  in  Parliament,  There  could  be  no  such  law  j 
^   B 


10 

because  it  is  impossible  to  find  out  what  passes  in  the  inte- 
rior of  any  •i:!a^n's  mind.  Suppose  it  were  in  contempla- 
tion to  exclude  all  men  from  certain  offices,  who  con- 
tended for  the  legality  of  taking  tythes,  the  only  mode  of 
discovering  that  fervent  love  of  decimation  which  1  know 
you  to  possess  would  be  to  tender  you  an  oath  "  against  that 
'*  damn  'ble  doctrine,  that  it  is  lawful  for  a  spiritual  man 
"  to  take,  abstract,  appropriate,  subduct,  or  lead  awa}' 
"  the  tenth  calf,  sheep,  lamh,  ox,  pigeon,  duck,"  &c.  &c. 
&c.  and  every  othe-  animal  that  -ever  existed,  which  of 
course  the  lawj^ers  would  take  care  to  enumerate.  Now 
this  oath  I  am  sure  you  would  rather  die  than  take  ;  and 
so  the  Catholic  is  excluded  from  Parliament  because  he 
Vi'iW  not  swear  that  he  disbelieves  the  leading  doctrines  of 
his  religion  !  The  Catholic  asks  you  to  abolish  some  oaths 
which  oppress  him  ;  your  answer  is,  that  he  does  not  re- 
spect oaths.  Then  why  subject  him  to  the  test  of  oaths  ? 
The  oaths  keep  him  out  of  Parliament  ;  why  then  he  re- 
spects them.  Turn  which  way  you  will,  either  your  laws 
are  nugatory,  or  the  Catholic  is  bound  by  religious  obli- 
gations as  you  are  :  But  no  eel  in  the  wcll-sauded  fist  of  a 
cook-maid,  upon  the  eve  of  being  skinned,  ever  twisted 
and  writhed  as  an  orthodox  parson  does  when  he  is  com- 
pelled by  the  gripe  of  reason  to  admit  any  thing  in  favor 
of  a  dissenter. 

I  will  not  dispute  with  jou  whether  the  Pope  be  or  be 
not  the  Scarlet  Lady  of  Babylon.  I  hope  it  is  not  so  ; 
because  I  am  afraid  it  will  induce  his  Majesty's  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  to  introduce  several  severe  bills  against 
popery,  if  that  is  the  case  ;  and  though  he  will  have  the 
decency  to  appoint  a  previous  committee  of  enquiry  as  to 
the  fact,  the  committee  will  be  garbled  and  the  report  in- 
flammatory. Leaving  this  to  be  settled  as  he  pleases  to 
settle  it,  1  wish  to  inform  you,  that,  previously  to  the  bill 
last  passed  in  favor  of  the  Catholics,  at  the  suggestion  of 
Mr.  Pitt,  and  for  his  satisfaction,  the  opinions  of  six  of 
the  most  celebrated  of  the  foreign  Catholic  universities 
were  taken  as  to  the  right  of  the  Pope  to  interfere  in  the 
temporal  concerns  of  any  country.  The  answer  cannot 
possibly  leave  the  shadow  of  a.  doubt,  even  in  the  mind  of 
Baron  Maseres  ;  and  Dr.  Rennel  would  be  compelled  to 
admit  it,  if  three  Bishops  lay  dead  at  the  very  moment  the 
question  were  put  to  him.  To  this  answer  might  be  added 
also  the  solemn  declaration  and  signature  of  all  the  Catiic- 
Hcs  in  Great  Britain. 


11 

I  should  perfectly  agree  with  you,  if  the  Catholics  ad- 
mitted such  a  dangerous  dispensing  power  in  the  hands  of 
the  Pope  ;  but  they  all  deny  it,  and  laugh  at  it,  and  are 
ready  to  abjure  it  in  the  most  decided  manner  you  can  de- 
vise. They  obey  the  Pope  as  the  spiritual  head  of  their 
church  ;  but  are  you  really  so  foolish  as  to  be  imposed 
upon  by  mere  names  ?  What  matters  it  the  seven  thou- 
sandth part  of  a  farthing  who  is  the  spiritual  head  of  any 
church  ?  Is  not  Mr.  Wilberforce  at  the  head  of  the  church 
of  Clapham  ?  Is  not  Dr.  Lets<:)m  ac  the  head  of  the  Q,iiaker 
church  ?  Is  not  the  General  Assembly  at  the  iiead  of  the 
church  of  Scotland  ?  How  is  the  government  disturbed  by 
these  many-headed  churches  ?  or  in  what  way  is  the  power 
of  the  Crown  augmented  by  this  almost  nominal  dignity  ? 

The  King  appoints  a  fast  day  once  a  year  ;  and  he  makes 
the  Bishops  :  and  if  the  government  would  take  half  the 
pains  to  keep  the  Catholics  out  of  the  arms  of  France  that 
it  does  to  widen  Temple-Bar,  or  improve  Snow-Hill,  the 
King  would  get  into   his  hands  the  appointments  of  the 

titular  Bishops  of  Ireland.    Both  Mr.  C 's  sisters  enjoy 

pensions  more  than  sufficient  to  place  the  two  greatest  dig- 
nitaries of  the  Irish  Catholic  church  entirely  at  the  dispo- 
sal of  tlic  crown.  Every  body  who  knows  Ireland,  knows 
perfectly  well,  that  nothing  would  be  easier,  with  the  ex- 
penditure of  a  little  money,  than  to  preserve  enough  of 
the  ostensible  appointment  in  the  hands  of  the  Pope  to 
satisfy  the  scruples  of  the  Catholics,  while  the  real  nomi- 
nation remained  with  the  Crown.  But,  as  I  have  before 
said,  the  moment  the  very  name  of  Ireland  is  mentioned, 
the  English  seem  to  bid  adieu  to  common  feeling,  com- 
mon prudence,  and  to  common  sense,  and  to  act  with  the 
barbarity  of  tyrauts  and  the  fatuity  of  ideots. 

Whatever  your  opinion  may  be  of  the  follies  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion,  remember  they  are  the  follies 
of  four  millions  of  human  beings,  increasing  rapidly  in 
numbers,  wealth,  and  intelligence,  who,  if  himly  united 
with  this  country,  would  set  at  defiance  the  power  of 
France,  and  if  once  wrested  from  their  alliance  with  Eng- 
land, would  in  three  years  render  its  existence  as  an  inde- 
pendent nation  absolutely  impossible.  You  speak  of  dan- 
ger to  the  establishment :  I  request  to  know  when  the 
establishment  was  ever  so  much  in  danger  as  when  Hoche 
was  in  Bantry  Bay,  and  whether  all  the  books  of  Bossuet, 
or  the  arts  of  the  Jesuits,  were  half  so  terrible  ?  Mr.  Per- 
<ieval  ^nd  his  parsons  forget  all  this,  in  their  horror  les4 


'      12 

twelve  or  fourteen  old  women  may  be  concerted  to  holy 
water  and  Catholic  theology.  They  never  see,  that,  while 
they  are  saving  these  venerable  ladies  from  perdition,  Ire- 
land may  be  lost,  England  broken  down,  and  the  Protes- 
tant church  with  all  its  Deans,  Prebends,  Percevals  and 
Rennels,  be  swept  into  the  vortex  of  oblivion. 

Do  not,  I  beseech  you,  ever  mention  to  me  again  the 
name  of  Dr.  Duigenan.  I  have  been  in  every  corner  of 
Ireland,  and  have  studied  its  present  strength  and  condi- 
tion with  no  common  labour.  Be  assured  Ireland  does 
not  contain  at  this  moment  less  than  five  millions  of  peo- 
ple. There  were  returned  in  the  year  1791  to  the  hearth 
tax  701,000  houses,  and  there  is  no  kind  of  question  that 
there  were  about  50,000  houses  omitted  in  that  retjirn. — 
Taking,  however,  only  the  number  returned  for  the  tax, 
and  allowing  the  average  of  six  to  a  house  (a  very  small 
average  for  a  potatoe  fed  people)  this  brings  the  popula- 
tion to  4,200,000  people  in  the  year  1791  ;  and  it  can  be 
shewn  from  the  clearest  evidence,  and  Mr.  Newenham  in 
his  book  shews  it,  that  Ireland  foir  the  last  fifty  years,  has 
increased  in  its  population  at  the  rate  of  50  or  60,000  per 
annum  ;  which  leaves  the  present  population  of  Ireland  at 
about  five  millions,  after  every  possible  deduction  for  eX" 
isting  ch^camsiances^  just  and  necessary  wars,  7nonstrous 
and  wmatural  rebellions,  and  all  other  sources  of  human 
destruction.  Of  this  population,  two  out  of  ten  are  Pro~ 
testants ;  and  the  half  of  the  Protestant  population  are 
Dissenters,  and  as  inimical  to  the  church  as  the  Catholics 
themselves.  In  this  state  of  things,  thumb-screws  and 
"whipping — admirable  engines  of  policy,  as  they  must  be 
considered  to  be — will  not  ultimately  avail.  The  Catho- 
lics will  hang  over  you  ;  they  will  watch  for  the  moment ; 
and  compel  you  hereafter  to  give  them  ten  times  as  much, 
against  yoijr  will,  as  they  would  now  be  contented  with, 
if  it  was  voluntarily  surrendered.  Remember  what  hap- 
pened in  the  American  war  :  when  Ireland  compelled  you 
tq  give  her  every  thing  she  asked,  and  to  renounce,  in  the 
most  explicit  manner,  your  claim  of  sovereignty  over  her. 
God  Almighty  grant  the  folly  of  these  present  men  may  not 
bring  on  such  another  crisis  of  public  affairs  ! 

What  are  your  dangers  which  threaten  the  establish- 
ment ? — Reduce  this  declamation  to  a  point,  and  let  us 
understand  what  you  mean.  The  most  ample  allowance 
does  not  calculate  that  there  would  be  more  than  twenty 
pembers  who  were  iiojpan  Catholics  in  one  houge,  and 


13 

ten  in  the  other,  if  the  Catholic  emancipation  were  carried 
into  eflfect.  Do  you  mean,  that  these  thirty  members 
would  bring  in  a  bill  to  take  away  the  tithes  from  the  Pro- 
testant, and  to  pay  them  to  the  Catholic  clergy  ?  Do  you 
mean,  that  a  Catholic  general  would  march  his  army  into 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  purge  it  of  Mr.  Perceval  and 
Dr.  Duigenan  ?  or,  that  the  theological  writers  would 
become  all  of  a  sudden  more  acute  and  more  learned,  if 
the  present  civil  incapacities  were  removed  ?  Do  you  fear 
for  your  tithes,  or  your  doctrines,  or  your  person,  or  the 
English  consitution?  Every  fear,  taken  separately,  is  so 
glaringly  absurd,  that  no  man  has  the  folly  or  the  bold- 
ness to  state  it.  Every  one  conceals  his  ignorance,  or  his 
baseness,  in  a  stupid  general  panic,  which,  when  called  on, 
be  is  utterly  incapable  of  explaining.  Whatever  you 
think  of  the  Catholics,  there  they  are— you  cannot  get 
rid  of  them  ;  your  alternative  is,  to  give  them  a  lawful 
place  for  stating  their  grievances,  or  an  unlawful  one  :  if 
you  do  not  admit  them  to  the  House  of  Commons,  they 
will  hold  their  parliament  in  Potatoe-place,  Dublin,  and 
be  ten  times  as  violent  and  inflammatory  as  they  would  be. 
in  Westminster.  Nothing  would  give  me  such  an  idea  of 
security,  as  to  see  twenty  or  thirty  Catholic  gentlemen  in 
Parliament,  looked  upon  by  all  the  Catholics  as  the  fair  and 
proper  organ  of  their  party.  I  should  have  thought  it  the 
height  of  good  fortune  that  such  a  wish  existed  on  their 
part,  and  the  very  essense  of  madness  and  ignorance  to 
reject  it.  Can  you  murder  the  Catholics  ?  Can  you  ne- 
glect them  ?  They  are  too  numerous  fur  both  these  ex- 
pedients. What  remains  to  be  done  is  obvious  to  every 
human  being  : — but  to  that  man  who,  instead  of  being  a 
methodist  preacher,  is,  for  the  curse  of  us  and  our  chil- 
dren, and  for  the  ruin  of  Troy,  and  the  misery  of  good 
old  Priam  and  his  sons,  become  a  legislator  and  a  poli- 
tician. 

A  distinction,  I  perceive,  is  taken,  by  one  of  the  most 
feeble  noblemen  in  Great  Britain,  between  persecution 
and  the  deprivation  of  political  power  ;  whereas  there  is 
no  more  distinction  between  these  two  things,  than  there 
is  between  him  who  makes  the  distinction  and  a  booby. 
If  I  strip  off  the  relic-covered  jacket  of  a  Catholic,  and 
give  him  twenty  stripes — I  persecute  :  if  I  say,  every- 
body in  the  town  where  you  live  shall  be  a  candidate  for 
lucrative  and  honourable  offices  but  you,  wiio  are  a  Ca- 
tholic~I  do  not  persecute  J— -What  barbarous  oonsense  is 


u 

this  !  as  if  degradation  was  not  as  great  an  evil  as  bodily 
pain,  or  as  severe  poverty  :   as  if  I  could  not  be  as  great  a 
tj'rant  by  saying,  you  shall  not  enjoy — as  by  saying,  you 
shall  suffer.     The  English,  I  believe,  are  as  truly  religi- 
ous as  any  nation  in  Europe  ;  T  know  no  greater  blessing  : 
but  it  carries  with  it  this  evil  in  its  train,  that  any  villain 
who  will  bawl  out  ^'  the  church  is  in  danger  /"  may  get  a 
place  and  a  good  pension  ;  and  that   any  administration 
who  will  do  the  same  thing,  may  bring  a  set  of  men  into 
power  who,  at  a  moment  of  stationary  and  passive  piety, 
would  be  hooted  b}'  the  very  boys  in  the  streets.     But.it 
is  not  all  religion  ;  it  is,  in  great  part,  that  narrow  and  ex- 
clusive spirit  which  delights  to  keep  the  common  blessings 
of  sun  and  air  and  freedom  from  other  human  beings. — 
*'  Your  religion  has  always  been  degraded  ;  you  are  in 
*'  the  dust,  and  I  will  take  care  you  never  rise  again.     I 
*'  should  enjoy  less   the   possession   of  any  earthly  good, 
**  by  every  additional  person  to  whom  it  was  extended." 
You  may  not  be  aware  of  it  yourself,  most  reverend  Abra- 
ham, but  you  deny  their   freedom  to  the  Catholics  upon 
the  same  principle  that  Sarah  your  wife  refuses  to  give  the 
receipt  for  a  ham  or  a  gooseberry  dumplin  :   she  values 
her  receipts,  not  because  they  secure  to  her  a  certain  fla- 
vour, but  because  they  remind  her  that  her  neighbours 
want  them  : — a  feeling  laughable  in  a  priestess,  shameful 
in  a  priest ;  venial  when   it  withholds  the  blessings   of  a 
ham,  tyrannical  and  execrable  when  it  narrows  the  boon  of 
religipus  freedom. 

You  spend  a  great  deal  of  ink  about  the  character  of 
the  present  prime-minister.  Grant  you  all  that  you 
write  ;  I  say,  I  fear  he  will  ruin  Ireland,  and  pursue  a  line 
of  policy  destructive  to  the  true  interest  of  his  country  : 
and  then  you  tell  me,  he  is  faithful  to  Mrs.  Perceval,  and 
kind  to  the  master  Percevals  !  These,  undoubtedly  are 
the  first  qualifications  to  be  looked  to  in  a  time  of  the  most 
serious  public  danger  ;  but  somehow  or  another,  if  public 
and  private  virtues  must  always  be  incompatible,  I  should 
prefer  that  he  destroyed  the  domestic  happiness  of  wood 
or  Cockrell,  owed  for  the  Veal  of  the  preceding  year, 
whipped  his  boys,  and  saved  his  country. 

The  late  administration  did  not  do  right;  they  did 
not  build  their  measure  upon  the  solid  basis  of  facts. — 
They  should  have  caused  several  Catholics  to  have  been 
dissected  after  death,  by  surgeons  of  either  rehgion  ;  and 
Lhe  report  to  have  been  published   with  accompanying- 


15 

plates.  If  the  viscera  and  other  organs  of  life  had  been 
found  to  be  the  same  as  in  Protestant  bodies  ;  if  the  pro- 
visions of  nerves,  arteries,  cerebrum  and  cerebellum,  had 
been  the  same  as  we  are  provided  with,  or  as  the  dissen- 
ters are  now  known  to  possess  ;  then,  indeed,  they  might 
have  met  Mr.  Perceval  upon  a  proud  eminence,  and  con- 
vinced the  country  at  lai'ge  of  the  strong  probability  that 
the  Catholics  are  really  human  creatures,  endowed  with 
the  feelings  of  men,  and  entitled  to  all  their  rights.  But 
instead  of  this  wise  and  prudent  measure.  Lord  Howick, 
with  his  usual  precipitation,  brings  forward  a  bill  in  their 
favor,  without  offering  the  slightest  proof  to  the  country 
that  they  were  any  thing  more  than  horses  and  oxen.  The 
person  who  shews  the  lama  at  the  corner  of  Piccadilly 
has  the  precaution  to  write  up — Allowed  by  Sir  Joseph. 
Banks  to  be  a  real  quadruped  :  so  his  lordship  might  have 
said — Allowed 'ibij  the  Bench  of  Bishops  to  be  real  human 
creatures.  I  could  write  you  twenty  letters  upon  this  sub- 
ject ;  but  I  am  tired,  and  so  I  suppose  are  you.  Our 
friendship  is  now  of  forty  years  standing  :  you  know  me 
to  be  a  truly  religious  man  ;  but  I  shudder  to  see  religion 
treated  like  a  cockade,  or  a  pint  of  beer,  and  made  the 
instrument  of  a  party.  I  love  the  King,  but  I  love  the 
people  as  well  as  the  King  ;  and  if  I  am  sorry  to  see  his 
old  age  molested,  I  am  much  more  sorry  to  see  four  mil- 
lions of  Catholics  baffled  in  their  just  expectations.  If  [ 
love  Lord  Greenville  and  Lord  Howick,  it  is  because  they 
love  their  country  :  if  I  abhor  ******  it  is  because  I 
know  there  is  but  one  man  among  them  who  is  not  laugh- 
ing at  the  enormous  folly  and  credulity  of  the  country, 
and  that  he  is  an  ignorant  and  mischievous  bigot.  As  for 
the  light  and  frivolous  jester,  of  whom  it  is  your  misfor- 
tune to  think  so  highly,  learn,  my  dear  Abraham,  that  this 
political  Killigrew,  just  before  the  breaking-up  of  the  last 
administration,  was  in  actual  treaty  with  them  for  a  place  ; 
and  if  they  had  survived  twenty-four  hours  longer,  he 
would  have  been  now  declaiming  against  the  cry  of  No 
Popery  !  instead  of  inflaming  it.  With  this  practical 
comment  on  the  baseness  of  human  nature,  I  bid  you 
adieu  ! 


16 


LETTER  Iir. 


All  tbat  1  have  so  often  told  you,  Mr.  Abraham  Plym- 
ley,  is  now  come  to  pass.  The  Scythians,  in  whom  you 
and  the  neighbouring  country  gentlemen  placed  such  con- 
fidence, are  smitten  hip  and  thigh  ;  their  Benningsen  put 
to  open  shame  ;  their  magazines  of  train-oil  intercepted, 
and  we  are  waking  from  oufr  disgraceful  drunkenness  to  all 
the  horrors  of  Mr.  Perceval  and  Mr.  Canning.  We  shall 
3)ow  see  if  a  nation  is  to  be  saved  by  school-boy  jokes  and 
doggrell  rhymes,  b}'  affronting  petulance,  and  by  the  tones 
and  gesticulations  of  Mr.  Pitt.  But  these  are  not  all  the 
auxiliaries  on  which  we  have  to  depend  ;  to  these  his  col- 
league will  add  the  strictest  attention  to  the  smaller  parts 
of  ecclesiastical  government,  to  hassocks,  to  psalters,  and 
to  surplices  ;  in  the  last  agonies  of  England,  he  will  bring 
in  a  bill  to  regulate  Easter  offerings  ;  and  he  will  adjust 
the  stipends  of  curates,*  when  the  flag  of  France  is  un- 
furled on  the  hills  of  Kent.  Whatever  can  be  done  by 
very  mistaken  notions  of  the  piety  of  a  christian,  and  by 
very  wretched  imitation  of  the  eloquence  of  Mr.  Pitt, 
will  be  done  by  these  two  gentlemen.  After  all,  if  they 
both  really  were  what  they  both  either  wish  to  be,  or  wish 
to  be  thought  ;  if  the  one  were  an  enlightened  christian, 
who  drew  from  the  gospel  the  toleration,  the  charity,  and 
the  sweetness  which  it  contains  ;  and  if  the  other  really 
possessed  an}^  portion  of  the  great  understanding  of  his 
Nisus  who  guarded  him  from  the  weapons  of  the  Whigs,  I 
should  still  doubt  if  they  could  save  us.  But  I  am  sure 
we  are  not  to  be  saved  by  religious  hatred,  and  by  religi- 
ous trifling  :  by  any  psalmody,  however  sweet  ;  or  by 
any  persecution,  however  sharp:  1  am  certain  the  sounds 
of  Mr.  Pitt's  voice,  and  the  measure  of  his  tones,  and  the 
movement  of  his  arms,  will  do  nothing  for  us  ;  when  these 
tones,  and  movements,  and  voice  bring  us  always  decla- 
mation without  sense  or  knowledge,  and  ridicule  without 
good  humour,  or  conciliation.     Oh,  Mr.  Plymley,  Mr. 

*  The  Reverend  tlie  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  has  since  this  was 
vrltten  found  time  in  the  heat  of  the  session  to  write  a  book  on  the  sti- 
pends of  curatf^s. 


17 

Plymley,  this  never  will  do.  Mrs.  Abraham  Plymley,  my 
sister,  will  be  led  away  captive  by  an  amorous  Gaul ; 
and  Joel  Plymley,  your  first-born,  will  be  a  French 
drummer. 

Out  of  sight,  out  of  mind,  seems  to  be  a  proverb  which 
applies  to  enemies  as  well  as  friends.  Because  the  French 
army  was  no  longer  seen  from  the  cliffs  of  Dover  ;  because 
the  sound  of  cannon  was  no  longer  heard  by  the  de- 
bauched London  bathers  on  the  Sussex  coast  ;  because 
the  Morning  Post  no  longer  fixed  the  invasion  sometimes 
for  Monday,  sometimes  for  Tuesday,  sometimes  (posi- 
tively for  the  last  time  of  invading)  on  Saturday  ;  because 
all  these  causes  of  terror  were  suspended,  you  conceived 
the  power  of  Bonaparte  to  be  at  an  end,  and  were  setting 
off  for  Paris,  with  Lord  Hawkesbury  the  conqueror. — 
This  is  precisely  the  method  in  which  the  English  have 
acted  during  the  -whole  of  the  revolutionary  war.  If 
Austria  or  Prussia  armed,  doctors  of  divinity  immedi- 
ately printed  those  passages  out  of  Habakkuk,  in  which 
the  destruction  of  the  Usurper  by  General  Mack,  and  the 
Duke  of  Brunswick,  are  so  clearly  predicted.  If  Bona- 
parte halted,  there  was  a  mutiny,  or  a  dysentery.  If  any 
one  of  his  generals  were  eaten  up  by  the  light  troops  of 
Kussia,  and  picked  (as  their  manner  is)  to  the  bone,  tlie 
sanguine  spirit  of  this  country  displayed  itself  in  all  its 
glory.  What  scenes  of  infamy  did  the  Society  for  the 
Suppression  of  Vice  lay  open  to  our  astonished  eyes  : 
tradesmen's  daughters  dancing  ;  pots  of  beer  carried  out 
between  the  first  and  second  lesson  ;  and  dark  and  distant 
Tumours  of  indecent  prints.  Clouds  of  Mr.  Canning's 
cousins  arrived  by  the  waggons  ;  all  the  contractors  left 
their  cards  with  Mr.  Rose  ;  and  every  plunderer  of  the 
public  crawled  out  of  his  hole,  like  slugs,  and  grubs,  ^nd 
worms,  after  a  shower  of  rain. 

If  my  voice  could  have  been  heard  at  the  late  changes, 
I  should  have  said,  "  gently,  patience;  stop  a  little  ;  the 
time  is  not  yet  come  ;  the  mud  of  Poland  will  harden,  and 
the  bowels  of  the  French  grenadiers  will  recover  their 
tone.  When  honesty,  good  sense,  and  liberality  have  ex- 
tricated you  out  of  your  present  embarrassment,  then  dis- 
miss them  as  a  matter  of  course  ;  but  you  cannot  spare 
them  just  now  :  don't  be  in  too  great  an  hurry,  or  there 
will  be  no  monarch  to  flatter,  and  no  country  to  pillage  ; 
only  submit  for  a  little  time  to  be  respected  abroad  ;  over- 
look the  painful  absence  of  the  tax-eathcrer  for  a  fcvv 
C 


18 

years  ;  bear  up  nobly  under  the  increase  of  freedom  and 
of  liberal  policy  for  a  little  time,  and  I  promise  you,  at 
the  expiration  of  that  period,  you  shall  be  plundered,  in- 
suited,  disgraced,  and  restrained  to  your  heart's  content. 
Do  not  iniagire  I  have  any  intention  of  putting  scurrility 
and  canting  hypocrisy  permanently  out  of  place,  or  of 
jfii'ing  up  with  courage  and  sense  those  offices  which  na- 
turally devolve  upon  decorous  imbecility  and  flexible 
cunning  :  give  us  only  a  little  time  to  keep  olTthe  hussars 
of  France,  and  then  the  jobbers  and  jesters  shall  return  to 
their  birthright,  and  public  virtue  be  called  by  its  old  name 
of  fanaticism."*  Such  is  the  advice  I  would  have  offered 
to  my  inlatuated  countrymen  ;  but  it  rained  very  hrrd  in 
Novcruber.  Brother  Abraham,  and  the  bowels  of  oui  ene- 
mies were  loosened,  and  we  put  our  trust  in  white  fluxes 
and  wet  mud  ;  and  there  is  nothing  now  to  oppose  to  the 
conqueror  of  the  world,  but  a  small  table  wit,  and  tijt  sal- 
low Surveyor  of  the  Meltings. 

You  ask  me,  if  I  think  it  possible  for  this  country  to 
survive  the  recent  misfortunes  of  Europe  ? — I  answer  you, 
without  '.he  slightest  degree  of  hesitation  :  that  if  Bona- 
parte lives,  and  a  great  deal  is  not  immediately  done  for 
the  conciliation  of  the  Catholics,  it  does  seem  to  me  abso- 
liiteiy  impossible  but  that  we  must  perish  ;  and  take  this 
with  yon.  that  we  shall  perish  without  exciting  the  slight- 
est feeling  of  present  or  future  compassion,  but  fall  amidst 
the  hootings  and  revilings  of  Europe,  as  a  nation  of  block- 
heads, Methodists,  and  old  women.  If  there  were  any 
great  scenery ,  any  heroic  feelings,  any  blaze  of  ancient 
virtue,  any  exalted  death,  any  termination  of  England 
th3'  would  be  ever  remembered,  ever  honoured  in  that 
western  world,  where  liberty  is  now  retiring,  conquest 
would  be  more  tolerable,  and  ruin  more  sweet ;  but  it  is 
doubly  m;  >erable  to  become  slaves  abroad,  because  we 
v/ould  be  tyrants  at  home  ;  to  persecute,  when  we  are  con- 
tending against  persecution  ;  and  to  nerish,  becaufe  we 
have  raised  up  worse  enemies  within,  from  our  own  bigot- 

*  Tlus  is  Mr.  Canning-'s  term  for  the  detection  of  public  abuses  j  a 
term  invented  by  him,  and  adopted  by  that  simious  parasite  who  is  always 
grn-.ning'  at  his  heels.  Nature  descends  down  to  infinite  smallness.  Mr. 
Cantnng'  has  his  parasites  ;  and  if  you  take  a  large  buzzing-  blue-bottle 
fly,  and  look  at  it  in  a  microscope,  you  may  see  twenty  or  thirty  little 
Ufjly  insects  crawling  abovit  it,  which  doubtles  think  their  fly  to  be  tl\e 
bluest,  grandest,  merriest,  most  important  animal  in  the  universe,  imil 
are  conrinced  the  world  would  be  at  an  end  if  it  ceased  to  buz. 


19 

ry,  than  we  are  exposed  to  without  from  the  unprincipled 
ambiaon  of  France.  It  is,  indeed,  a  most  silly  and  afflict- 
ino-  spectacle  to  rage  at  such  a  moment  against  our  own 
kindred,  ad  our  own  blood  ;  to  tell  them  rhey  cannot  be  - 
honorable  in  war,  because  they  are  conscientious  in  reli- 
gion ;  to  stipulate  (at  the  very  moment  when  we  should 
buy  their  hearts  and  swords  at  any  price)  that  they  must 
hold  up  the  right  hand  in  prayer,  and  not  the  left  ;  and 
adore  one  common  God,  by  turning  to  the  east,  rather 
than  to  the  west. 

What  is  it  the  Catholics  ask  of  you  ?  Do  not  exclude  us 
from  the  honours  and  emoluments  of  the  State,  because 
we  worship  God  in  one  way,  and  you  worship  him  in  ano- 
ther,— in  a  period  of  the'  deepest  peace,  and  the  fattest 
prosperity,  this  would  be  a  fair  request  ;  it  should  be 
granted,  if  Lord  Hawkesbury  had  reached  Paris,  if  Mr. 
Canning's  interpreter  had  threatened  the  Senate  in  an 
opening  speech,  or  Mr.  Perceval  explained  to  them  the 
improvements  he  meant  to  introduc  into  the  C..''iolic  reli- 
gion ;  but  to  deny  the  Irish  this  justice  now,  in  the  pre- 
sent state  of  Ekirope,  and  in  the  summer  months,  just  as  the 
season  for  destroying  kingdoms  is  coming  on,  is  (beloved 
Abraham),  whatever  you  may  think  of  it,  little  short  of 
positive  insanity. 

Here  is  a  frigate  attacked  by  a  corsair  of  immense 
strength  and  size  ;  rigging  cut,  masts  in  uanger  of  coming 
by  the  board,  four  foot  water  in  the  hok  ,  men  dropping 
off  very  fast  ;  in  this  dreadful  situation,  how  do  thiok  the 
captain  acts  (whose  name  shajl  be  Peixeval)  ?  He  calls  all 
hands  upon  deck  ;  talks  to  them  of  king,  countev,  glory, 
sweethearts,  gin,  French  prison,  wooden  shoes,  (*ld  Eng- 
land, and  hearts  of  oak:  they  give  three  cheers,  rush  to 
their  guns,  and  after  a  tremendous  contiict,  succeed  in 
beating  off  the  enemy.  Not  a  syllable  of  all  this  ;  this  is 
n»t  the  manner  in  which  the  honourable  Commander  goes 
to  work  :  the  first  thing  he  does  is  to  secure  twenty  or 
thirty  of  his  prime  sailors  who  happen  to  be  Catholics,  to 
clap  them  in  irons,  and  set  over  them  a  guard  of  as  many 
Protestants ;  having  taken  this  admirable  method  of  defend- 
ing himself  against  his  infidel  opponents, he goesupon deck, 
reminds  the  sailors,  in  a  very  bitter  harangue,  that  they  are 
of  different  religions  ;  exhorts  the  Episcopal  gunner  not 
to  trust  to  the  Presbyterian  quarter-master  ;  issues  posi- 
tive orders  that  the  Catholics  should  be  fired  at  upon  the 
first  appearance  of  discontent  5  rushes  through  blood  and 


20 

brains,  examining  his  men  in  the  Catechism  and  thirty- 
nine  Articles,  and  positively  forbids  every  one  to  spunge 
or  ram,  who  has  not  taken  the  sacrament  according  to 
the  church  of  England.  Was  it  right  to  take  out  a  Cap- 
tain made  of  excellent  British  stuff,  and  to  put  in  such  a 
man  as  this  ?  Is  not  he  more  like  a  parson,  or  a  talking 
lawyer,  than  a  thorough-bred  seamen  ?  And  built  as  she 
is  of  heart  of  oak,  and  admirably  manned,  is  it  possible 
with  such  a  Captain  to  save  this  ship  from  going  to  the 
bottom  ?  , 

You  have  an  argument,  I  perceive,  in  common  with 
many  others  against  the  Catholics,  that  their  demands 
couiplied  with  would  only  lead  to  farther  exactions,  and 
that  it  is  better  to  resist  them  now,  before  any  thing  is 
conceded,  than  hereafter,  when  it  is  found  that  all  con- 
cessions are  in  vain.  I  wish  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exche- 
quer, who  uses  this  reasoning  to  exclude  others  from  their 
just  rights,  had  tried  its  efficacy,  not  by  his  understand- 
ing, but  by  (what  are  full  of  much  better  things)  his  pock- 
ets. Suppose  the  person  to  whom  he  applied  for  the 
Meltings  had  withstood  every  plea  of  wife  and  fourteen 
children,  no  business  and  good  character,  and  refused  him 
this  paltry,  little  office,  because  he  might  hereafter  at- 
tempt to  get  hold  of  the  revenues  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancas- 
ter for  Ufe.  Would  not  Mr.  Perceval  have  contended 
eagerlj-  against  the  injustice  of  refusing  moderate  requests, 
*  because  immoderate  ones  may  hereafter  be  made  ?  Would  ' 
he  not  have  said  (and  said  truly)  leave  such  exorbitant  . 
attempts  as  these  to  the  geyeral  indignation  of  the  Com- 
mons, who  will  take  care  to  defeat  them  when  they  do 
occur  ;  but  do  not  refuse  me  the  Irons  and  the  Meltings 
Tiow,  because  I  may  totally  lose  sight  of  all  moderation 
hereafter.  Leave  hereafter  to  the  spirit  and  the  wisdom  of 
hereafter  ;  and  do  not  be  niggardly  now,  from  the  appre- 
hension that  men  as  wise  as  you  should  be  profuse  in  times 
to  come. 

You  forget.  Brother  Abraham,  that  it  is  a  vast  art 
(where  quarrels  cannot  be  avoided)  to  turn  the  public 
opinion  in  your  favour,  and  to  the  prejudice  of  your  ene- 
my ;  a  vast  privilege  to  feel  that  you  are  in  the  right,  and 
to  make  him  feel  that  he  is  in  the  wrong  ;  a  privilege 
which  makes  you  more  than  a  man,  and  your  antagonist 
less  ;  and  often  secures  victory,  by  convincing  him  who 
contends,  that  he  must  submit  to  injustice,  if  he  submits 
to  defeat.     Open  every  rank  in  the  army  aod  the  navy  to 


21 

the  Catholic  ;  let  him  purchase  at  the  same  price  as  the 
Protestant  (if  either  Catholic  or  Protestant  can    purchase 
such   refined    pleasures)    the   privilege   of  hearing    Lord 
Castlereagh  speak  for  three  hours  ;  keep  his  clergy  from 
starving,  soften   some  of   the  most  odious  powers  of  the 
tjthing-man,    and  you  will  for  ever  lay  this  formidable 
question  to  rest.     But  if  I  am  wrong,  and  you  must  quar- 
rel at  last,  quarrel  upon  just,  rather  than  unjust  grounds; 
divide  the  Catholic,  and  unite  the  Protestant  ;   be  just,  and 
your  own  exertions  will  be  more  formidable,  and  their  ex- 
ertions less  formidable  ;  be  just,  and  you  will  take  away 
from  their  party  all  the  best  and  wisest  understandings  of 
both  persuasions,  and  knit  them  firmly  to  your  own  cause. 
"  Thrice  is  he  armed,  who  has  his  quarrel  just  ;"  and  ten 
times  as  much  may  he  be  taxed.     In  the  beginning  of  any 
war,  however  destitute  of  common  sense,  every  mob  will 
roar,  and  every  Lord  of  the  Bedchamber  address  ;  but  if  , 
you  are  engaged  in  a  war  that  is  to  last  for  years,  and  to 
require  important  sacrifices,  take  care  to  make  the  justice 
of  your  case  so  clear  and  so  obvious,  that  it  cannot  be  mis- 
taken by   the  most  illiterate  country  gentleman  who  rides 
the  earth.     Nothing,  in  fact,  can  be  so  grossly  absurd  as 
the  argument  which  says,  I  will  deny  justice  to  you  now, 
because  I  suspect  future  injustice  from  you.     At  this  rate 
you  may  lock  a  man  up  in  your  stable,  and  refuse  to  let 
him  out  because  you  suspect   that  he  has  an  intention,  at 
tome  future  period,  of  robbing  your  hen-roost.     You  may 
horsewhip  him  at  Lady-day,  because  you  believe  he  will 
affront  you  at  Midsummer.     You  may    commit  a  greater 
evil,  to  guard  agamst  a  less,  which  is  merely  contingent, 
and  may  never  happen.     You  may  do  what  you  have  done 
a  century   ago  in  Ireland,  made  the  Catholics  worse  than 
Helots,  because  you    suspected  that  they  might  hereaftfer 
aspire  to   be  more  than  fellow  citizens  ;  rendering  their 
sufferings   certain  from  your  jealousy,   while  yours  were 
only  doubtful  from  their  ambition  ;  an  ambition  sure  to 
be  excited  by  the  very  measures  which  were  taken  to  pre- 
vent it. 

The  physical  strength  of  the  Catholics  will  not  be 
greater  because  you  give  them  a  share  of  political  power. 
You  may  by  these  means  turn  rebels  into  friends  ;  but  I 
do  not  see  how  you  make  rebels  more  formidable.  If  they 
taste  of  the  honey  of  lawful  power,  they  will  love  the  hive 
from  whence  they  procure  it ;  if  they  will  struggle  with  us 
Jikemc'j  in  the  same  state  for  civil  influence,  we  are  safe. 


22 

All  that  I  dread  is,  the  physical  strength  of  four  millions  of 
men  combined  with  an  invading  French  army.  If  you 
are  to  quarrel  at  last  with  this  enormous  population,  still 
put  it  off  as  long  as  you  can  ;  you  must  gain  and  cannot 
lose  by  the  delay.  The  state  of  Europe  cannot  be  worse ; 
the  conviction  which  the  catholics  entertain  of  your  ty- 
ranny and  injustice  cannot  be  more  alarming,  nor  the  opi- 
nions of  your  own  people  more  divided.  Time,  which 
produces  such  effect  upon  brass  and  marble,  may  inspire 
one  minister  with  modesty,  and  another  with  compassion  ; 
every  circumstance  may  be  better  ;  some  certainly  will  be 
so,  none  can  be  worse ;  and,  after  all,  the  evil  may  never 
happen. 

You  have  got  hold,  I  perceive,  of  all  the  vulgar  English 
stories  respecting  the  hereditary  transmission  of  forfeited 
property,  and  seriously  believe  that  every  Catholic  beg- 
gar wears  the  titles  of  his  father's  land  next  his  skin,  and  is 
only  waiting  for  better  times  to  cut  the  throat  of  the  Pro- 
testant possessor,  and   get  drunk  in  the  hall  of  his  ances- 
tors.    There  is  one  irresistable  answer  to  this  mistake,  and 
that  is,  that  the  forfeited  lands  are  purchased  indiscrimi- 
nately by  Catholic  and  Protestant,  and  that  the  Catholic 
purchaser  never  objects  to  such  a  title.     Now  the  land  (so 
purchased  by  a  Catholic)  is  either  his  own  family  estate, 
or  it  is  not.     If  it  is,  you  suppose  him  so  desirous  of  com-v 
ino-  into  possession,  that  he  lesorts  to  the  double  method 
of  rebellion  and  purchase  ;  if  it    is  not  his  own   family 
estate  of  which  he  becomes  the  purchaser,   you  suppose 
him  first  to  purchase,  then  to  rebel,  in  order  to  defeat  the 
purchase.     These  things  may  happen  in  Ireland  ;  but  it  is 
totally  impossible  they  can  happen  any  where  else.     In 
fact,  what  land  can  any  man,  of  any  sect,  purchase  in  Ire- 
land, but  forfeited  property  ?    In  all  other  oppressed  coun- 
tries which  I  have  ever  heard  of,  the  rapacity  of  the  con- 
queror was  bounded  by  the  territorial  limits  in  which  the 
objects  of  his  avarice  were  contained  ;  but  Ireland  has 
been  actually    confiscated  twice  over,   as  a  cat  is  twice 
killed  by  a  wicked  parish-boy. 

I  admit  there  is  a  vast  luxury  in  selecting  a  particular 
set  of  christians,  and  in  worrying  them  as  a  boy  worries  a 
puppy  dog  ;  it  is  an  amusement  in  which  all  the  young 
English  are  brought  up  from  their  earliest  days.  I  like 
the  idea  of  saying  to  men  who  use  a  different  hassock  from 
me,  that  till  they  change  their  hassock,  they  shall  never 
be  Colonels,  Aldermen,  or  Parliament-men.     While  I  am 


23 


gratifying  my  personal  insolence  respecting  religious  forms, 
I'fondle myself  into  an  idea  that  I  am  religious,  and  that  I 
am  doing  my  duty  in  the  most  exemplary  (as  I  certainly  am 
in  the  most  eas}')  vvay.  But  then,  my  good  Abraham,  this 
sport,  admirable  as  it  is,  is  become,  with  respect  to  the  Ca- 
tholics,a  little  dangerous ;  and  if  we  are  not  extremely  care- 
ful in  taking  the  amusement,  we  shall  tumble  into  the  holy 
water,  and  be  drowned.  As  it  seems  necessary  to  your 
idea  of  an  established  church,  to  have  somebody  to  worry 
and  torment,  suppose  we  were  to  select  for  this  purpose 
William  Wilberforce,  Esq.  and  the  patent  christians  of 
Clapham.  We  shall  by  this  expedient  enjoy  the  same  op- 
portunity for  cruelty  and  injustice,  without  being  exposed 
to  the  same  risks  :  we  will  compel  them  to  abjure  vital 
clergj'men  by  a  public  test  ;  to  deny  that  the  said  Wil- 
liam Wilberforce  has  any  power  of  working  miracles, 
touching  for  barrenness,  or  any  other  infirmity,  or  that  he 
is  endowed  with  any  preternatural  gift  whatever.  We 
will  swear  them  to  the  doctrine  of  good  works,  compel 
them  to  preach  common  sense,  and  to  hear  it ;  to  frequent 
Bishops,  Deans,  and  other  high  Churchmen  ;  and  to  ap- 
pear (once  in  the  quarter  at  the  least)  at  some  Melodrama, 
Opera,  Pantomime,  or  other  light  scenical  representation  : 
in  short,  we  will  gratify  the  love  of  insolence  and  power  ; 
we  will  enjoy  the  old  orthodox  sport  of  witnessing  the  im- 
potent anger  of  men  compelled  to  submit  to  civil  degra- 
dation, or  to  sacrifice  their  notions  of  truth  to  ours.  And 
all  this  we  may  do  without  the  slightest  risk,  because  their 
numbers  are  (as  yet)  not  very  considerable.  Cruelly  and 
injustice  must,  of  course,  exist ;  but  why  connect  them 
with  danger  ?  Why  torture  a  bull-dog,  when  you  can  get 
a  frog  or  a  rabbit  ?  I  am  sure  my  proposal  will  meet  with 
the  most  universal  approbation.  Do  not  be  apprehensive 
o/any  opposition  from  ministers.  If  it  is  a  case  of  hatred, 
we  are  sure  that  one  man  will  defend  it  by  the  gospel  ;  if 
it  abridges  human  freedom,  we  know  that  another  will 
find  precedents  for  it  in  the  revolution. 

In  the  name  of  heaven,  what  are  we  to  gain  by  suffer- 
ing Ireland  to  be  rode  by  that  faction  which  now  predomi- 
nates over  it  ?  Why  are  we  to  endanger  our  own  Church 
and  State,  not  for  500,000  Episcopalians,  but  for  ten  or 
twelve  great  Orange  families,  who  have  been  sucking  the 
blood  of  that  country  for  these  hundred  years  last  past  ? 


2i 

and  the  folly  of  the  Orange  men*  in  playing  this  game 
themselves,  is  almost  as  absurd  as  our  in  playing  it  for 
them.  They  ought  to  have  the  sense  to  see  that  their  bu- 
siness now  is  to  keep  quietlv  the  lands  and  beeves  of  vjrhich 
the  fathers  of  the  Catholics  were  robbed  in  days  of  yore  ; 
they  must  give  to  their  descendants  the  sop  of  political 
power :  by  contending  with  them  for  names,  they  will  lose 
realities,  and  be  compelled  to  beg  their  potatoes  in  a  fo- 
reign land,  abhorred  equally  by  the  English,  who  have 
witnessed  their  oppression  ;  and  by  the  Catholic  Irishj 
who  have  smarted  under  them. 


LETTER  IV 


Then  comes  Mr,  Isaac  Hawkins  Brown  (the  gentleman 
who  dancedf  so  badly  at  the  Court  of  Naples)  and  asks,  if 
it  is  not  an  anomaly  to  educate  men  in  another  religion 
than  your  own  ?  It  certainly  is  our  duty  to  get  rid  of  er- 
ror, and  above  all  of  religious  error  ;  but  this  is  not  to  be 
done  per  saltuni,  or  the  measure  will  miscarry  like  the 
Queen.  It  may  be  y.try  easy  to  dance  away  the  royal 
embryo  of  a  great  kingdom  ;  but  Mr.  Hawkins  Brown 
must  look  before  he  leaps,  when  his  object  is  to  crush  an 
opposite  sect  in  religion  ;  false  steps  aid  the  one  effect,  as 
much  as  they  are  fatal  to  the  other  :  it  will  require  not  only 
the  lapse  of  Mr.  Hawkins  Brown,  but  the  lapse  of.  cen- 
turies, before  they  can  eradicate  the  Catholic  religion  ; 
four  millions  of  Catholics  are  better  than  four  millions  of 
wild  beasts  ;  two  hundred   priests  educated   by  our  ovvfi 

•  This  remark  begins  to  be  sensibly  felt  In  Ireland  ;  Ulc  Protestants 
iin  Ireland  are  fast  coming  over  to  the  Catholic  cause, 

•}•  In  the  third  year  of  his  present  Majestj ,  and  in  '.he  oOtli  of  his  owa 
age,  Mr.  Jsaac  Hawkins  Brown,  then  upon  his  travels,  danced  one  even, 
ing  at  the  Court  of  Naples,  His  dress  v/as  a  volcano  silk,  with  lava,  but- 
tons.  Whether  (as  the  Neapolitan  wits  said)  l.-.  had  studied  dancing 
under  St.  Vitus,  or  whether  David,  dancing  in  a  linen  vest,  was  his  mo- 
<ie\,  is  not  known  ;  but  Mr,  Brown  danced  witii  such  Inconceivable  ala- 
crity and  vigour,  that  he  threw  the  Queen  of  Naples  into  convulsions  of 
laughter,  which  terminated  in  a  miscaiTiage,  and  chang^ed  the  dynasty  oT 
"the  Neapolitan  throne. 


25 

government,  are  better  than  the  same  number  educated  by 
the  man  who  means  to  destroy  us. 

The  whole  sum  now  appropriated  by  government  to 
the  religious  education  of  four  millions  of  chris  ians  is 
<£  13,000  ;  a  sum  about  one  hundred  limes  as  large  being 
a;  propriated  in  the  same  country  to  about  one  eighth  part 
of  this  number  of  Protestants.  When  it  was  proposed  to 
raise  this  grant  from  06 8 ,000  to  13,000,  its  [.resent  amount, 
this  sum  was  o'  jected  to  by  that  most  indulgent  of  chris- 
tians, Mr.  Spencer  Perceval,  as  enormous  ;  he  himself 
having  secured  for  his  own  eating  and  drinking,  and  the 
eating  and  drinking  of  the  Master  and  Miss  Percevals,  the 
reversionary  sum  of  <£2l,000  a  year  of  the  public  money, 
and  having  just  failed  in  a  desperate  and  rapacious  attempt 
to  secure  to  himself  for  life  the  revenues  of  the  Duchy 
of  Lancaster  :  and  the  best  of  it  is,  that  this  minister, 
after  abusing  his  predecessors  for  their  impious  bounty  to 
the  Catholics,  has  found  himself  compelled,  from  the  ap- 
prehension of  ii). mediate  danger,  to  grant  the  sum  in 
question  ;  thus  dissolving  his  pearl*  in  vinegar,  and  de- 
stroying all  the  value  of  the  gift,  by  the  virulence  and  re- 
luctance with  which  it  was  granted. 

I  bear  from  some  persons  in  Parliament;,  and  from 
others  in  the  sixpenny  societies  for  debate,  a  great  deal 
about  unalterable  laws  passed  at  the  tlevolutioa.  When 
I  hear  any  man  taik  of  an  unalterable  law,  the  only  effect 
it  produces  upon  me,  is  to  convince  me  that  he  is  an  unal- 
terable fool.  A  law  passed  when  there  v\as  Germany, 
Spam,  r  ussia,  Sweden,  Holland,  Portugal,  and  Turkey  ; 
when  there  was  a  disputed  succession  ;  when  four  or  five 
hundred  acres  were  won  and  lost  atten  ten  years  hard 
fighting  ;  when  armies  were  connnancied  by  the  sons  of 
Kings,  and  campaigns  passed  in  an  interchange  of  civil 
letters  and  ripe  fruit  ;  and  for  these  la  s,  w'ien  the  whole 
state  of  the  world  is  completely  changed,  we  are  now,  ac- 
cording to  m}  Lord  Hawkesbury,  to  ho  d  ourselves  ready 
to  perish.  It  is  no  mean  mis.ortune,  in  tiuivS  like  these, 
to  be  forced  to  say  any  thi.  g  about  such  n}en  ai>  Lord 
Hawkesbury,  and  to  be  re,  :inded  that  we  are  goverm  d  by 
them  ;  but  as  1  am  driven  to  i  ,  I  must  take  the  liberty  of 
observing,  that  the  wisdom  and  liberalit  o!"  my  Lord 
Ha    kcsbury  are  of  that  complexion  which  always  shrinks 

*  Perfectly  ready  at  the  same  time  to  follow  the  other  half  of  Cleopa- 
tra's example,  and  to  swaiigw  the  solution  himself. 

D 


26 

from  the  present  exercise  of  these  virtues,  b}''  praisinrg  the 
splendid  examples  of    hem  in  ages  past.     If  he  had  lived 
at  such  periods,  he  would  have  opposed  the  Revolution  by 
praisin^r  the  Reformation,  and  the  Keformation  by  speak- 
ing handsomely  of  the  Crusades.     He  gratifies  his  natu-^ 
ral  antipathy  to  great  and  courageous  measures,  by  play* 
ing  off  the  w  sdom  and  courage  which  have  ceased  to  in- 
fluence human  affairs,  against  that    wisdom  and   courage 
which  living  men  would  employ  for  present  happiness. — 
Besides,  it  happens  unfortunately   for  the  Warden  of  the 
Cinque   Ports,   that  to  the   principal  incapacities  under 
which  the  Irish  suffer,  they  were  subjected  after  that  great 
and  glorious  Revolution,  to  which  we  are  indebted  for  so 
many  blessings,  and   his  Lordship  for  the  termination  of 
so  many  periods.     The  Catholics  were  not  excluded  from 
the  Irish  House  of  Commons,  or  mil  tary  commands,  be- 
fore the  3d  and  4th  of  William  and  Mary,  and  tUe  1st  and 
2no  of  Queen  Anne. 

It  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  environesl  ss  they  are 
on  e  ery  side  with  Jenkinsons,  Percevals,  Meivi lies,  and 
other  perils,  were  to  pray  for  divine  illumination  and  aid, 
what  more  could  Providence  in  its  mercy  do,  than  send 
them  the  example  of  Scotland  ?  For  what  a  length  of  years 
was  It  attempted  to  compel  the  Scotch  to  change  their  re- 
lig'on  :  horse,  foot,  artillery ,  and  armed  Prebendaries  were 
sent  out  after  the  Presbyterian  parsons,  and  their  congre- 
gations. The  Percevals  of  those  days  called  for  blood  : 
this  call  is  never  made  in  vain,  and  blood  was  shed  ;  bift, 
to  the  as  omshment  and  horror  of  the  Percevals  of  those 
days,  they  could  not  introduce  the  book  of  common 
pra}er,  nor  revent  that  nieta|:hysical  people  from  going 
to  heaven  their  true  way,  instead  of  our  true  way.  With 
a  little  oatmeal  for  food,  and  a  little  sulphur  for  friction, 
allaying  cutaneous  irritation  with  the  one  hand,  and  hold- 
ing his  calvinistical  creed  in  the  other,  Sawney  ran  away 
to  his  tiinty  hills,  sung  his  psalm  out  of  tune  his  own  way, 
and  listened  to  his  sermon  of  two  hours  long,  amid  the 
r;  uoh  and  mij  osing  melancholy  of  the  tallest  thistles.  Bat 
Sa  ney  brought  up  his  u  breached  offspring  in  a  cordial 
hatred  of  his  oppressors  ;  and  Scotland  was  as  much  a 
part  of  the  uea^ness  of  Kngland  then,  as  Ireland  is  at  this 
moment.  The  true  and  the  only  remedy  was  applied  ; 
the  Scotch  were  suffered  to  worship  God  after  their  own 
tiresome  manner,  without  pain,  penalty,  and  privation. 
Ko  lightnings  descended  from  iieaven  ;  the  country  was 


27 

not  ruined  ;  the  world  is  not  yet  come  to  an  end  ;  the 
dignitaries,  who  foretold  all  these  consequences,  are  ut- 
terly forgotten  ;  and  Scotland  has  ever  since  been  an  in- 
creasing" source  ot  strength  to  Great  Britain.  In  the  six 
hundredth  year  of  our  empire  over  Ireland,  we  are  mak- 
ing laws  to  transport  a  man,  if  he  is  fou  d  out  of  his 
house  after  eigh.  o'clock  at  night.  Thac  this  is  neces- 
sary, I  know  too  weil  ;  but  tell  me  whv  is  it  necessary  ? 
It  IS  not  necessary  in  Greece,  where  the  Turks  are  mas- 
ters. 

Are  you  aware,  that  there  is  at  this  moment  an  univer- 
sal clamour  throughout  tiie  whole  of  Irelan  I  against  the 
Union  ?   It  is  now  one   month  since  I   returned  from  that 
country  :  I  have  never  seen  so  e\traordmary.  so  alarming, 
and  so  rapid  a  change  in  the  sentiments  ot  any    people. 
Those  who  disliked   the  Union  before,  are  quite  furious 
against  it  now  ;  those  who  doubted,  doubt  no  more;  those 
who  were  friendly  to  it  have  exchanged  that  friendship 
for   the    most   rooted  aversion  ;  in  the   midst  of  all   this 
(which  is  by  far  the  most  alarming  symptom)  there  is  the 
strongest  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  Northern  Dissen- 
ters to  unite  with  the  Catholics,   irritated  by  the  faithless 
injustice  with  which  they  have  been  treated.     If  this  com- 
bination does  take   place  (mark  what  I  say  to  you),   you 
will  have  meetings  all  over  Ireland  for  the  cry  of  No  Uni- 
on ;  that  cry    will  s  read  like   wild-fire,    and  blaze  over 
every  opposit  on  ;  and  if  this  is  the  case,  there  is  no  use 
in  nnncing  the  matter,  Ireland  is  gone,  and  the  death-blow 
of  England  is  struck  ;  and  this  event  may  happen  instant- 
ly— before   Mr.   Canni'  g  and   Mr.   Hookham   P>ere  have 
turned   Lord   Howick'slast  speech  into  doggrell  rhyme  ; 
before  "  the  near  and  dear  relations'''  have  received  ano- 
ther quarter  of  their  pension,  or  Mr.  Perceval  conducted 
the  Curates' Salary   Bill  safely  to  a  third  reading. — If  the 
mind  of  the  English  peoj^le,  cursed  as  the}'  now  are  with 
that  madness   of   religious   dissension,    which    has  been 
breathed  into  them  for  the  purposes  of  private  ambition, 
can  be  alarmed  by  any  remembrances,  and  warned  by  any 
events,  they  should  never  forget  how  nearly  Ireland  was 
lost  to  this  country  during  the  American  war  ;  that  it  was 
saved  merely  by  the  jealousy  of  the  Protestant  Irish  'o- 
wards  the  Catholics,  then  a  much  more  insignificant  and 
powerless  body  than  they  now  are.     The  Catholic  and  the 
Dissenter  have  since  combined  together  against  you.  Last 
W^'y  the  winds,  those  ancient  and  unsubsidized  allies  oi 


28 

jEngland  ;  the  winds,  upon  which  English  ministers  de- 
pemj  as  much  or  saving  kingdoms,  as  washer  wo. nen  do 
for  dryino  clothes  ;  the  winds  stood  your  fr;ends  ;  the 
■pre  eh  could  only  get  into  Ireland  in  small  numbers,  and 
the  rebels  were  defeated.  Since  then,  all  the  re  raining 
kingdoms  of  Europe  have  been  destroyed  ;  and  the  lriv».h 
see  that  heir  national  indcfjendence  is  gone,  without  hav- 
ing received  any  smgle  one  of  those  advantages  w-  icf>  t';ey 
were  taugrht  to  expect  from  the  sacrifice.  Al  good  things 
were  to  flow  from  the  Union  ;  they  have  none  of  them 
gained  any  thing.  Every  man's  pride  is  woun.  ed  by  it  ; 
no  man's  interest  is  promoted.  In  the  seventh  year  of  that 
Union,  four  million  Catholics,  lured  by  all  kinds  cf  pro- 
mises I'o  yield  up  the  separate  dignity  and  sovereignty  of 
their  country,  are  forced  to  squabble  with  such  a  man  as 
Mr.  Spencer  Perceval  for  five  thousand  p  unds  with  which 
to  educate  their  children  in  their  own  mode  of  worship  ; 
he,  the  same  Mr.  S^jencer,  having  secured  to  his  own 
Protestant  self  a  reversi  nary  portion  of  the  public  money 
amountiiig  to  four  times  that  sum.  A  senior  Proctor  of 
the  University  of  Oxford,  or  the  head  of  a  house,  or  the 
examining  Chaplain  to  a  Bishop,  may  believe  these  things 
can  last;  but  every  man  of  the  world,  vvhose  understand- 
ing has  been  exercised  in  the  business  of  life,  must  see  (and 
see  with  a  breaking  heart)  that  they  will  soon  come  to  a 
fearful  term  nation. 

Our  conduct  to  Ireland,  dur'ng  the  whole  of  th  s  war, 
has  beeb  that  o"  a  man  who  subscribes  to  hosj  itals,  weeps 
at  charity  sermons,  carries  out  broth  and  blankets  to  beg- 
gars,  and  then  comes  home  and  beats  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren. We  had  comMassion  for  the  victims  of  all  other  op- 
pression and  injustice,  except  our  own.  If  Switzerland 
was  threatene:,  away'  went  a  Treasury  Clerk  with  a  hun- 
dred thousand  pounds  lor  Switzerland  ;  large  bags  of 
money  were  kept  constantly  under  sailing  orders  ;  upon 
the  lightest  demonstration  towards  Naples,  dow^.  went 
Sir  William  Hamilton  upon  his  knees,  and  be-^rged  for  the 
love  of  St.  Januarius  they  would  help  us  off  with  a  little 
money  ;  all  the  arts  of  Machiavel  were  resorted  to,  to  per- 
suade EurOj  e  to  borrow  ;  troops  were  sent  off  in  all  direc- 
tions to  save  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  world  ;  the  Pope 
himself  was  guarded  by  a  regiment  of  English  dragoons  ; 
if  the  Grand  Lama  had  been  at  hand,  he  would  have  had 
another;  every  Catholic  Clergyman,  who  had  the  good 
fortune  to  be  neither  English  nor  Irish,  was  immediately 


29 

provided  with  lodging,  soup,  crucifix,  missal,  chapel- 
beads,  relics,  and  holy  water ;  if  Turks  had  Ian  Jed, 
Turks  would  have  received  an  order  from  the  Treasary 
for  coffee,  o^-ium,  korans,  and  seraglios.  In  the  midst  of 
aii  this  fury  of  saving  and  defending,  this  crusade  for 
conscience  and  Christianity,  there  was  an  universal  agree- 
ment among  all  descriptions  of  people  to  continue  every 
S;  ecies  of  internal  ersecution  ;  to-  deny  at  home  every 
just  r.ght  that  had  been  denied  before  ;  to  punimei  ooor 
Dr.  Abraham  Uees  and  his  Dissenters  ;  and  to  treat  the 
unhappy  Catholics  of  Ireland  as  if  their  tongues  were  mute, 
their  heels  cloven,  their  nature  brutal,  and  designedly  sub- 
jected by  Providence  to  their  Oran^^e  masters. 

How  w.^uld  my  admirable  bru.ner,  the  Jlev.  Abraham 
Plymiey,  like  to  be  marchea  to  a  Catholic  cha,el,  to  be 
sprinkled  with  the  sanctified  conte  ts  of  a  pump,  to  hear  a 
number  of  false  cjuantities  in  the  Latin  ong  e,  and  to  see 
a  number  ot  persons  occupied  in  making  right  angles  u^pon, 
the  breast  and  forehe  d  ?  And  if  all  this  would  give  you 
so  much  paiu,  what  right  have  you  to  march  Catholic  sol- 
diers to  a  place  of  worship,  where  there  is  no  as,  ersion,  no 
rectangular  gestures,  and  where  thev  understand  every 
W'TU  they  hear,  h  ving  first,  in  order  to  get  him  to  en- 
list, made  a  solemn  promise  to  the  contrary  ? -Can  you 
wonder,  after  this,  that  the  Catholic  priest  stops  the  re- 
cruiting in  Ireland,  as  he  is  now  doing  to  a  most  alarming 
degree  ? 

The  late  question  concerning  military  rank  did  not  in- 
dividually atfect  the  lowest  persons  of  the  Catholic  persua- 
sion ;  but  do  you  imagine  they  do  not  sympathise  with 
the  honour  and  disgrace  of  their  super  ors  ?  Do  you  think 
that  satisfaction  and  disaffection  do  not  travel  down  from 
Lord  Fingal  to  the  most  potatoeless  Catholic  in  Ireland, 
and  that  the  glory  or  shame  of  the  sect  is  not  felt  by  many 
more  than  these  conditions  personally  and  corporeally 
affect  ?  Do  you  suppose  that  the  detection  of  ::ir  Henry 
Mildmay,  and  the  disappointment  of  Mr.  Perceval  in  the 
matter  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  did  not  affect  every 
dabbler  in  public  property  ?  De  end  upon  it  these  things 
were  felt  through  all  the  gradations  (^f  small  plunderers, 
down  to  him  who  filches  a  pound  of  tobacco  irom  the 
King's  ware-houses;  while,  on  the  contrary,  the  acquittal 
of  any  noble  and  oflficial  thief  would  not  fail  to  diffuse  the 
most  heart-felt  satisfaction  over  the  larcerous  and  bungla- 
jious  world,     pbserve,  I  do  not  say  because  the  lower 


so     ■ 

Catholics  are  affected  by  what  concerns  their  superiors, 
that  they  are  not  affected  by  what  concerns  themselves. — 
There  is  no  disguising  the  horrid  truth  ;  there  inust  be 
some  relaxation  with  respect  to  tyihe :  this  is  the  cruel  and 
heart-rending  price  which  must  be  paid  for  national  pre- 
servation. I  feel  how  little  existence  will  be  worth  hav- 
ing, if  any  alteration,  however  slight,  is  made  in  the  pro- 
perty of  Irish  Rectors  ;  I  am  conscious  how  much  such 
changes  must  affect  the  daily  and  hourly  comforts  of  every^ 
E)  glishman  ;  I  shall  feel  too  happy  if  they  leave  Europe 
untouched,  and  are  not  ultimately  fa  al  to  the  destinies  of 
America;  but  I  am  madly  bent  upon  keeping  f  reiga 
enemies  out  of  the  British  Empire,  and  my  limited  under- 
standing presents  me  with  no  other  means  of  effecting  my 
object. 

You  talk  of  waiting  till  another  reign,  before  any  alter- 
ation is  made  ;  a  proposal  full  of  good  sense  and  ii;ood 
nature,  if  the  measure  in  question  were  to  pull  down  St. 
James's  Palace,  or  to  a'ter  Kew  Gardens.  Will  Bona- 
parte agree  to  put  off  his  intrigues,  and  his  invasion  of 
Ireland?  If  so  I  will  overlook  the  question  of  justice,  and 
finding  the  danger  suspended,  agree  to  the  delay.  I  sin- 
cerely hope  this  re'gn  may  last  many  years,  yet  the  delay 
of  a  single  session  of  Parliament  may  be  fatal ;  but  if  ano- 
ther year  elapses  without  some  serious  concession  made  to 
,  the  Catholics,  I  believe,  before  God,  that  all  future 
pledges  and  concessions  will  be  made  in  vain.  I  do  not 
think  that  peace  will  do  you  any  good  under  such  circum- 
stances :  if  Bonaparte  gives  30U  a  respite,  it  will  only  be 
to  get  ready  the  gallows  on  which  he  means  to  hang  you. 
The  Catholic  and  the  Dissenter  can  unite  in  peace  as  well 
as  war.  If  they  do,  the  gallows  is  ready  ;  and  your  exe- 
cutioner, in  spite  of  the  most  solemn  promises,  will  turn 
you  off  the  next  hour. 

With  every  disposition  to  please  (where  to  please 
within  fair  and  rational  limits  is  an  high  duty),  it  is  im- 
possible for  public  men  to  be  long  silent  about  the  Catho- 
lics :  pressing  evils  are  not  got  rid  of,  because  they  are 
not  talked  of.  A  man  may  command  his  family  to  say 
nothing  mere  about  the  stone  and  surgical  operations  ; 
but  tne  ponderous  malice  still  lies  upon  the  nerve,  and 
gets  so  big,  that  the  patient  breaks  his  own  law  of  silence, 
clamours  for  the  knife,  and  expires  under  its  late  opera- 
tion. Believe  me,  you  talk  folly,  when  you  speak  of  sup- 
pressing the  Catholic  question.    I  wish  to  God  the  case 


3L 

admitted  of  such  a  remedy  :  bad  as  it  is,  it  does  not  admit 
of  it.  If  the  wants  of  the  Catholics  are  not  heard  in  the 
manly  tones  of  Lord  Grenville,  or  the  servile  drawl  of 
Lord  Castiereagh,  they  will  be  heard  ere  long  in  the  mad- 
ness of  mobs,  and  the  conflicts  of  armed  men. 

I  observe,  it  is  now  universally  the  fashion  to  speak  of 
the  first  personage  in  tiie  state  as  the  great  obstacle  to  the 
measure.     In  the  first   place,  I  am  not  bound  to  believe 
such  rumours  because  I  hear  them  ;  and  in  the  next  place, 
I  object  to  such  language,  as  unconstitutional.     Whoever 
retains  his  situation  in  the  ministr;;,  while  the  incapacities 
of  the  Catholics  remain,  is  the  advocate  for  those  incapa- 
cities ;  and  to  him,  and  to  him  only,  am  I  to  look  for  res- 
posibility.     But  wave  this  question  of  the  Catholics,  and 
put  a  general  case  :  How  is  a  minister  of  this  country  to 
act,  xvhen  the  conscientious  scruples  of  his  Sovereign  pre- 
vent the  execution  of  a  measure  deemed  by  him  absoluteh'' 
necessary  to  the   safety  of  the  country  ?    His  conduct  is 
quite  clear— he  should  resign.     But  '.vhat  is  his  successor 
to  do  ? — Resign,     But  is  the  King  to  be  left  without  mini- 
sters, and  is  he  in  this  manner  to  be  compelled  to   act 
against  his  own  conscience  ?   Before  I  answer  this,  pray 
tell  me,  in  my  turn,  what  better  defence  is  there   against 
the. machinations  of  a  wicked  or  the  errors  of  a  weak  mo- 
narch, than  the  impossibility  of  finding  a  minister  who  will 
lend  himself  to  vice  and  folly  ?      Every  English  Monarch, 
in  such  a   predicament,  would  sacrifice  his  opinions  and 
views  to  such  a  clear  expression  of  the  public  will  ;  and  it 
is  one  method  in  which  the  Constitutiofi  aims  at  briiigijig 
about  such  a  sacrifice.     You  may  say,  if  you  please,  that 
the  ruler  of  a  state  is  forced  to  give  up  his  object,  when  the 
natural  love  of  place  and  power  will  tempt  no  one  to  assist 
him  in  its  attainment.      This  may  be  force  ;  but  it  is  force 
without  inj^ury,and  therefore  without  blame.   I  am  not  to  be 
beat  out  of  these  obvious  reasonings,  and  ancient  consti- 
tutional provisions,  by  the  term  conscience.     There  isaio 
fantasy,  however  wild,  that  a  man  may  not  persuade  him- 
self that  he  cherishes  from  motives  of  conscience  :  eternal 
war  against  impious  France,  or  rebellious  America,  or  Ca- 
tholic Spain,  may  in  times  to  come  be  scruples  of  consci- 
ence.    One  English  Monarch  may,  from  scruples  of  con- 
science,  wish  to  abolish  every  trait  of  religious  persecu- 
tion ;  another  Monarch  may  deem  it  his  absolute  and  in- 
dispensable duty  to  make  a  slight  provision  for  Dissenters 
«ut  of  the  revenues  of  the  Church  of  JSaigland.     So  that 


$2 

you  see,  Brother  Abraham,  there  are  cases  where  it  would 
be  t  ,e  dun  of  the  best  and  most  loyal  subjects  to  oppose 
the  conscientious  scruples  of  their  sovereign,  still  taking 
care  hat  their  actions  were  constitutional,  and  their  modes 
res-  ectful.  Then  you  come  upon  me  with  personal  ques- 
tions, and  saj',  that  no  such  dangers  are  to  be  apprehended 
now  under  our  present  p^^racious  Sovereign,  of  whose  good 
qualities  we  must  be  all  so  well  convinced.  All  these  sort 
of  discussions  1  beg  leave  to  decline  ;  what  I  have  said 
tjpon  constitutional  topics,  I  mean,  of  course,  for  general, 
not  for  particular  applicat  on.  I  agree  with  you  mall  the 
good  you  have  said  oi  the  powers  that  be,  and  I  avail  my- 
self of  the  o^^portun  ty  of  i  ointing  out  general  dangers  to 
the  Constitution,  at  a  moment  when  we  are  so  completely 
exempted  from  their  present  influence.  I  cannot  finish 
this  letter,  without  expressing  my  surprise  and  pleasure  at 
your  abuse  of  the  servile  addresses  poured  in  upon  the 
Throne  ;  nor  can  I  conceive  a  greater  disgust  to  a  Mo- 
narch, with  a  true  English  heart,  than  to  see  such  a  ques- 
tion as  that  of  Catholic  emancipation  argued,  nut  with  a 
reference  to  its  justice  or  its  importance,  but  universally 
consiaered  to  be  of  no  farther  consequence  than  as  it  af- 
fects his  own  private  feelings.  That  these  sentiments 
should  be  mine,  is  not  wonderful  ;  but  how  they  came 
to  be  yours,  does,  I  confess,  fill  me  with  surprise.  Are 
you  moved  by  the  arrival  of  the  Irish  Brigade  at  Ant- 
werp, and  the  amorous  violence  which  awaits  Mrs.  Plym- 
ley  ? 


LETTER  V. 


Dear  Abraham  j 

I  NEVER  met  a  parson  in  my  life,  who  did  not  consider 
the  Corporation  and  Test  Acts  as  tlie  great  bulwarks  of  the 
Church  ;  and  yet  it  is  now  just  sixty -four  years  since  bills 
of  indemnity  to  destroy  their  penal  effects,  or,  in  other 
words,  to  repeal  them,  have  been  passed  annually  as  a  mat^ 
terof  course.  These  bulwarks,  without  which  no  clergy- 
man thinks  he  could  sleep  with  his  accustomed  soundness, 


33 

have  actually  not  been  in  existence  since  any  man  now 
livin.o;'  has  taken  holy  orders.  Kvery  year  the  indemnity 
act  pardons  i  ast  breaches  of  these  two  laws,  and  prevents 
any  fresh  actions  of  informers  from  coming  to  a  conclu- 
sion before  the  period  for  the  next  indemnity  bill  arrives ; 
so  that  these  penalties,  by  which  alone  the  Church  remains 
in  existence,  have  not  had  one  moirent's  operation  for 
sixtj-four  years. — You  will  say,  the  Leo^islature,  during 
the  whole  of  this  period,  has  reserved  to  itself  the  discre- 
tion of  suspending,  or  not  suspending.  But  had  not  th& 
Legislature  the  right  of  re-enacting,  if  it  was  necessary  ? 
And  now  when  you  have  kept  the  rod  over  these  people 
(with  the  most  scandalous  abuse  of  all  principle)  for  sixty- 
four  years,  and  not  found  it  necessary  to  strike  once,  is 
not  that  the  best  of  all  reasons  why  the  rod  should  be  laid 
aside  ? — You  talk  to  me  of  a  very  valuable  hedge  running 
across  your  fields,  which  you  would  not  part  with  on  any 
account.  I  go  down,  expecting  to  find  a  limit  impervious 
to  cattle,  and  highly  useful  for  the  preservation  of  pro- 
perty ;  but  to  my  utter  astonishment,!  find  that  the  hedge 
was  cut  down  half  a  century  ago,  and  that  every  year  the 
shoots  are  clipped  the  moment  they  appear  above  ground  : 
it  appers,  upon  further  enquiry,  that  the  hedge  never 
ought  to  have  existed  at  all ;  that  it  originated  in  the  ma- 
lice of  antiquated  quarrels,  and  was  cut  down  because  it 
subjected  you  to  vast  inconvenience,  and  broke  up  your 
intercourse  with  a  country  absolutely  necessary  to  your 
existence.  If  the  remains  of  this  hedge  serve  only  to 
keep  up  an  irritation  in  your  neighbours,  and  to  remind 
them  of  the  feuds  of  former  times,  good-nature  and  good 
sense  teach  you  that  you  ought  to  grub  it  un,  and  cast  it 
into  the  oven.  This  is  the  exact  state  of  these  two  laws  ; 
and  yet  it  is  made  a  great  argument  against  concession  to 
the  Catholics,  that  it  involves  their  repeal  ;  which  is  to 
say,  do  not  make  me  relinquish  a  folly  that  will  lead  to  my 
ruin  ;  because  if  you  do,  I  must  give  up  other  follies  ten 
times  greater  than  this. 

I  confess,  with  all  our  bulwarks  and  hedges,  it  mortifies 
me  to  the  very  quick,  to  contrast  with  our  matchless  stu- 
pidity and  inimitable  folly,  the  conduct  of  Bonaparte  upon 
the  subject  of  religious  persecution.  At  the  moment 
when  we  are  tearina;  the  crucifixes  from  the  necks  of  the 
Catholics,  and  washing  pious  mud  from  the  foreheads  of 
the  Hindoos  ;  at  that  moment  this  man  is  assembling:  the 
very  Jew^  at  Paris,  and  endeavouring  to  give  them  stabi- 
E  "        " 


u 

liiy  and  importance.  I  shall  never  be  reconciled  to  mcnd-=i^ 
ing  shoes  in  America  ;  but  1  see  it  must  be  my  l.t,  and  f 
will  then  take  a  dreadful  revenpe  upon  Mr.  Perceval,  if  I 
catch  him  preaching  within  ten  miles  of  me.  1  cannot 
for  the  soul  of  me  conceive  whence  this  man  has  gained 
his  i.oudns  of  Christianity  :  he  has  the  most  evangelical 
charity  for  errors  in  arithmetic,  and  the  most  inveterate 
malice  against  errors  in  conscience  ;  while  he  rages  against 
those  whom  in  the  true  spirit  of  the  gospel  he  ought  to 
indulge,  he  forgets  the  only  instance  ol  severity  which 
that  gospel  contains,  and  leaves  the  jobbers,  and  con- 
trators,  and  nioney-ehangers  at  their  seats,  without  a  sin- 
gle stripe. 

You  cannot  imagine,  you  say,  that  England  will  ever 
be  rained  and  conquered  ;  and  for  no  other  reason  that  I 
find,  but  because  it  seems  so  very  odd  it  should  be  ruined 
and  conquered.  Alas  !  so  reasoned,  in  their  time,  the 
Austrian,  Russian,  and  Prussian  Plymleys.  But  the  Eng- 
lish are  brave  :  so  were  all  these  nations.  You  might  get 
together  an  hundred  thousand  men  individually  brave  ;  but 
without  gener  Is  capable  of  commanding  such  a  machine, it 
would  be  as  useless  as  a  first  rate  man  of  war  manned  by 
Oxford  clergymen,  or  Parisian  shopkeepers.  I  do  not  say 
this  to  the  disparagement  of  English  officers ;  they  have 
had  no  means  of  acquiring  ex|ierience  ;  but  I  da  say  it  to 
create  alarm  ;  for  we  do  not  appear  to  me  to  be  half 
alarmed  enough,  or  to  entertain  that  sense  of  our  danger 
which  leads  to  the  most  obvious  means  of  self-defence.  As 
for  the  s  irit  of  the  peasantry,  in  making  a  gallant  defence 
behind  hedge-rows,  and  through  plate-racks  and  hen- 
coops, highly  as  I  think  of  their  bravery,  1  do  not  know*- 
any  nation  in  Europe  so  likely  to  be  struck  with  panic  as 
the  English  ;  and  this  from  their  total  utiacquaintance  with 
sciences  of  war.  Old  \^heat  and  beans  blazing  for  twenty 
miles  round  ;  cart  mares  shot ;  sows  of  Lord  Somerville  s 
breed  running  wild  over  the  country  ;  the  minister  of  the 
Parish  woiiuded  sorely  in  his  hinder  parts  ;  Mrs.  Plymley 
in  fits  ;  all  these  scenes  of  war  an  Austrian  or  a  Russian 
has  seen  three  or  four  times  over  ;  but  it  is  now  three  cen- 
turies since  an  t  nglish  pig  has  fallen  in  a  fair  battle  upon 
English  ground,  or  a  farm  house  been  rifled,  or  a  eleigy- 
man's  wife  been  subjected  ta  any  other  proposals  of  love, 
than  theconnnoial  endearments  of  her  sleek  and  orthodox 
mate.  The  old  edition  of  Plutarch's  L  ves,  which  lies  in 
fhe  corner  of  your  parlour   windoAV,  has  contributed  to 


85 

work  you  up  to  the  inost  romantic  expectations  of  our 
Koman  behaviour.     You  are  persuaded  that  Lord  Amherst 
tvill  defend  Kew-Bridge  like  Codes  ;  that  some  maid  of 
honour  will  break  away  from  her  captivity,  and  swim  over 
the  Thames  ;  that  the  Duke  of  York  will  burn  h  s  capitu- 
lating hand ;  and  little  Mr.   Sturges  Bourne  give  forty 
years  purchase  for  Moulsham-Hall,  while  the  i  rench  are 
encamped  upon  it.     1  hope  we  shall  witness  all  this,  if  the 
French  do  come  ;  but  in  the  mean  time,  I  am  so  enchanted 
with  the  ordinary  English  behaviour   of  these  invaluable 
persons,  that  I  earnestly   pray  no  opportunity  may  be  gi- 
ven them  for  Roman  valour,  and  lor  those  very  un-Roman 
pensions   which  they  would   all,  of  coirse,  take  esj.ecal 
care  to  claim  in  consequence.     But  whatever  was  our  con- 
duct, if  every  ploughman  was  as  great  a  hero  as  he  who 
was  called  from  his  oxen  to  save  Rome  from  her  enemies, 
I  shoul  .  still  say,  that  at  such  a  crisis  you  want  the  affec- 
tions of  all  your  subjects  in  both  islands:  there  is  no  spirit 
which  you  must  alienate,  no  heart  you  must  avert  ;  every 
man  must  feel  he  has  a  country,  and  that  there  is  an  ur- 
gent and  pressing  cause  why  he  should  expose  himself  to 
death. 

The  effects  of  penal  laws,  in  matters   of  religion,  are 
never  confined  to  those  limits   in   which  the   Legislature 
intended  they  should  be  placed  :   it  is  not  only  that  I   am 
excluded  from  certain  offices  and  dignties  because  I  am 
a  Catholic,  but  the  exclusion  carres  with   it   a  certain 
stigma,  which  degrades  me  in  the  eyes  of  the  monopoli- 
zing sect,  and  the  very  name  of  my  religion  becomes  odi- 
ous.    These  effects  are  so  very  striking  in  England,  that 
I  solemnly  believe  blue  and  red  baboons  to  be  more  po- 
pular here   than   Catholics  and    Presbyterians  ;  they  are 
more  understood,  and  there  is  a  greater  disposition  to  do 
something  for  them.     When  a  country  squire  hears  o    an 
ape,  his  first  feeling  is  to  give  it  nuts  and  apples  ;  when  he 
hears  of  a  Dissenter,  his  immediate  impulse  is  to  commit 
it  to  the  county  jail,  to  shave  its  head,  to  alter  its  custom- 
ary food,  and   to  have  it   privately  whipped.     This  is  no 
caricature,  but  an  accurate  picture  of  national  feelings, 
as  they  degrade  and  endanger  us  at  this  very  mom'  nt.-^ 
The  Irish  Catholic  gentleman  would  bear  his  legal  disabi- 
Jities  with  greater  tem  er,  iUhese  were  all  he  had  io  bear— 
if  they  did  not  enable  every  Protestatit  cheesemonger  ;ind 
tide-waiter  to  treat  him  with  contempt.     He  i-  branded 
on  the  forehead  with  a  red-hot  iron,  and   treated  like  a 


36 

i 

spiritual  felon,  because,  in  the  hi^^hest  of  all  considera« 
tion ,  he  is  led  by  the  noblest  of  all  guides,  his  own  disin- 
tertsted  conscience. 

Why  are  nonsense  and  cruelty  a  bit  the  better  because 
they  are  enacted  ?  If  Providence,  v  hich  gives  wine  and 
oil,  had  blest  us  with  that  tolerant  spirit  which  makes  the 
countenance  more  pleasant  and  the  heart  more  ejlad  thaa 
these  can  do  ;  if  our  Statute-Book  had  never  been  iefiled 
with  such  infamous  laws,  the  ser-ulchral  Spencer  Perceval 
would  have  been  hauled  through  the  dirtiest  horse-^ond 
in  Hampstead,  had  he  ventered  to  propose  them.  But 
now  persecution  is  good,  because  it  e.ists ;  every  law 
which  originated  in  ignorance  and  malice,  ana  gratities  the 
passions  from  whence  it  sprang,  we  ca.l  .he  wisdom  of  our 
ancestors  :  when  such  laws  are  repealed,  t  ey  will  be  vrn. 
elty  and  madness;  till  tiiey  are  repealed,  they  are  policy 
and  caution. 

I  was  somewhat  amused  with  the  imputation  brouejht 
3,gainst  the  Catholics  by  the  University  of  Oxford,  t'st 
they  are  enemies  o  liberty,  I  immediately  turned  to  .y 
History  of  England,  and  marked  as  an  historical  error  that 
passage,  in  which  it  is  recorded,  that,  in  the  rejgn  of 
Queen  Anne,  the  famous  decree  of  the  Univers.ty  of  0.%- 
ford,  respecting  passive  obedience,  was  ordered,  by  the 
House  of  Lords,  to  be  burnt  by  the  hands  of  the  common 
hangman,  as  contrary  to  the  liberty  of  the  subject,  and 
the  law  of  the  land.  Nevertheless,  I  wish,  whatever  be 
the  modesty  of  those  who  impute,  that  the  im;  utation  was 
a  little  more  true  than  it  is  ;  the  Catholic  cause  would  not 
be  quite  so  desperate  with  the  present  Admitiistration. — 
J  fear,  however,  that  the  haired  to  liberty  m  these  poor 
devoted  wretches  may  ere  long  appear  more  doubtful  tlian 
it  is  at  present  to  the  Vice-Chancellor  and  his  clergy,  in- 
flame;, as  they  doubtless  are,  with  classical  examples  of 
republican  virtue,  and  panting,  as  they  always  have  been, 
to  reduce  the  power  of  the  Crown  within  narrower  a-id 
safer  limits.     What  mistaken  zed  to  attempt  to  connect 

one  religion   with   freedom,  and  another   with  slavery ^ 

Who  laid  the  foundations  of  English  liberty?  What  was 
the  mixed  religion  of  Switzerland  ?  What  has  the  Protes- 
tant'  religion  done  for  Iberty  in  Denmark,  in  Sweden, 
throughout  the  North  of  Germany,  and  in  Prussia  ?  The 
purest  religion  in  the  v/orld,  in  my  humble  opinion,  is  the 
religion  of  the  Church  of  England  :  for  its  preservation 
(so  far  as  it  is  exercised  without  intruding  upon  the  liber» 


37 


ties  of  others),  I  am  ready  at  this  moment  to  venture  my 
present  lite,  and  but  through  that  religion  I  have  no  hopes 
ot  any  other  ;  yet  I  am  not  forced  to  be  silly  because  I  am 
pious  ;  nor  will  I  ever  join  in  eulogiums  on  my  faith,  which 
every  man  of  common  reading  and  common  sense  can  so 
easily  refute. 

You  iiave  either  done  too  much  for  the  Catholics  (wor- 
thy Abraham),  or  too  little  ;  if  you  had  intended  tore- 
fuse  tbeni  political  power,  you  should  have  refused  them 
civil  rights.  After  you  had  enabled  them  to  acquire  pro- 
perty, after  you  had  conceded  to  them  all  that  you  did 
concede  in  '78  and  '93,  the  rest  is  wholly  out  of  your 
power  :  you  may  chuse  whether  you  will  give  the  rest  in 
an  honorable  or  a  disgraceful  mode,  but  it  is  utterly  out 
of  your  power  to  withhold  it. 

In  the  last  year,  land  to  the  amount  of  eight  hundrei 
thoasayid  pounds  was  purchased  by  the  Catholics  in  Ire- 
land. Do  you  think  it  possible  to  be-Perceval,  and  be- 
Canning,  and  be-Castlereagh  such  a  body  of  men  as  this 
out  of  their  common  rights,  and  their  common  sense  ? 
Mr.  George  Canning  may  laugh  and  joke  at  the  idea  of 
Protestant  bailiffs  ravishing  Catholic  ladies,  under  the 
9th  clause  of  the  sun-set  bill  ;  but  if  some  better  remedy 
is  not  applied  to  the  distractions  of  Ireland  than  thejocu- 
larity  of  Mr.  Canning,  they  will  soon  put  an  end  to  his 
pension,  and  to  the  pension  of  those  "  near  and  dear  rela- 
tives,*' for  whose  eating,  drinking,  washing,  and  clothing, 
every  man  in  the  united  kingdoms  now  pays  his  twopence 
or  three  pence  a  year.  You  may  call  these  observations 
coarse,  if  you  please  ;  but  I  have  no  idea  that  the  Sophias 
and  Carolines  of  any  man  breathing  are  to  eat  national 
veal,  to  drink  public  tea  and  to  wear  Treasury  ribbons, 
and  then  that  we  are  to  be  told  that  it  is  coarse  to  animad- 
vert u.on  this  pitiful  and  eleemosynary  splendour.  If 
this  is  right,  why  not  mention  it  ?  If  it  is  wrong,  why 
should  not  he  who  enjoys  the  ease  of  supporting  his 
sisters  in  this  manner  bear  the  shame  of  it  ?  Every  body 
see.ns  hitherto  to  have  spared  a  man,  who  never  spares  any 
bod}'. 

As  for  the  enormous  wax  candles,  and  superstitious 
mummeries,  and  painted  jackets  of  the  Catholic  priests,  I 
fear  them  not.  Tell  me  that  the  world  will  return  again 
under  the  influence  of  the  small-pox  ;  that  Lord  Castle- 
reagh  will  hereafter  oppose  the  power  of  the  Court;  that 
Lord  Howick  and  Mi:.  Grattaii  will  do  each  of  them  a 


ss 

nean  and  dishonourable  action  ;  that  any  body  who  has 
heard  Lord  Redesdale  sjjeak  once,  will  knowingly  and  wil- 
lingly hear  him  again  ;  that  Lord  Eldon  has  assented  to 
the  fact  of  two  and  two  making  four,  without  shedding 
tears,  or  ex.  ressing  the  smal  est  doubt  or  scruple  ;  tell  me 
any  other  thing  absurd  or  incredible,  but — for  the  love  of 
common  sense,  let  me  hear  no  more  of  the  danger  to  be 
apj  rehended  from  the  general  diffusion  of  popery.  It  is 
too  absurd  to  be  reasoned  u;  on  ;  every  man  feels  it  is  non- 
sense when  he  hears  it  stated,  9,nd  so  does  every  man  while 
he  is  stating  it. 

I  cannot  imagine  why  the  friends  to  the  Church  esta- 
blishment should  entertain  such  an  horror  of  seeing  the 
doors  of  Parliament  flung  open  to  the  Catholics,  and  view 
so  passively  the   enjoyment  of  t^at  right   by  the   Presby- 
terians, and  by  every  Ouher  species  of  Dissenter.     In  their 
tenets,  in  their  church  governme  ts,  in  the  nature  of  their 
endowment,  the  Dissenters  are  infinitely  more  distant  from 
the  Church  of  England   than  the  Catholics  are  ;  yet  the 
Dissenters  have  never  been  excluded  from   Parliament. — 
There  are  forty-five  members  in  one  house,  and  sixteen  .n 
the  other,  who  always  are  Dissenters.     There   is  no  law 
which  would   prevent  every  member  of   the    Lords  and 
Commons  from  being  Dissenters.     The   Catholics  could 
not  bring  into  Parliament  ha.f  the  ni»mber  of  the  Scotch 
member^  ;  and  yet  one  exclusion  is  of  such  immense  im- 
portance, because  it  has  taken  place ;  and  the  other  no  hu- 
man being  thinks  of,  because  iio  one  is  accustomed  to  it. 
I  have  often  thought,   if  the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors  had 
excluded  all   persons  with   red   bar  from   the  House  of 
Commons,  of  the  throes  and  convulsions  it  would  occasion 
to  restore  them  to  their  natural  rights.      What  mobs  and 
riots  would  it  produce  ?   To  what  infinite  abuse  and  oblo- 
quy would  the  capillary  patriot  be  eXj^osed  ;  what  worm- 
wood would  distil  frotn  Mr.  Perceval,  what  froth  would 
drop  from  Mr.  Canning  ;  how  (f  will  not  say  my,  but  our 
Lord  Hawkesbury,  for  he  belongs  to  us  all>  how  our  Lord 
Ha^kesbury  would  work  away   about  the  hair  of  King 
William  and  Lord  Somers,  and  the  authors  of  the  great 
and  glorious  Revolution  ;  how  Lord  Eldon  would  ap.  eal 
to  the  Deity,  and  his  own  virtues  ;  and  to  the  hair  of  his 
children  :  some  would   say  that  red-ha  red  men  were  su- 
perstitious ;  some  would  prove  they   were  atheists  ;  they 
would  be  petitioned  against  as  the  friends  of  slavery,  and 
the  advocates  for  revolt  j  in  short,  such  a  corrupter  of  the 


r> 


9 


lieart  and  the  understanding  is  the  spirit  of  persecution, 
thai  the  c  untortnnate  people  (coiisjired  against  by  their 
feliow-subjectsot"  every  cpmplexion),  if  they  did  not  emi- 
grate to  countries  V,  here  iiair  of  another  colour  was  perse- 
cuted, would  be  dr  ven  to-the  falsehood  of  perukes,  or  the 
hyjOcrisy  of  the  Tricosian  fluid. 

As  for  the  dangers  of  the  Church  (in  spite  of  the  stag- 
gering events  which  have  lately  taken  place)  I  have  noc 
yet  entirely  lost  niy  confidence  in  the  power  of  common- 
sense,  and  I  believe  the  church  to  be  in  no  danger  at  all  ; 
but  if  it  is,  th  't  dangeris  not  from  the  Catholics,  but  from 
the  Methodists,  and  from  the  patent  Christianity  which 
ha  been  for  soaje  ti  i  e. manufacturing  at  Clapham,  to  the 
preiudice  of  the  old  and  admirable  article  prepared  by" 
the  Church.  I  would  counsel  my  Lords  the  Bishops  to 
keep  their  eyes  upon  that  holy  village,  and  its  hallowed 
'Vicinity  :  they  will  find  there  a  zeal  in  making  converts, 
far  superior  to  any  thing  which  exists  among  the  Catho- 
lics ;  a  contLfflf  t  for  the  great  mass  of  English  clergy, 
much  more  rooted  and  profound  ;  and  a  regular  fund  to 
purchase  livings  for  those  groaning  and  garrulous  gentle- 
men, whom  they  denominate  (by  a  standing  sarcasm 
against  the  regular  Church)  Gospel  preachers  and  Vital 
clergymen.  I  am  too  firm  a  believer  in  the  general  pro- 
priety and  respectability  of  the  English  clergy,  to  believe 
they  have  much  to  fear  either  from  old  nonsense,  or  from 
new  ;  but  if  the  Church  must  be  supposed  to  be  in  dan- 
ger, I  prefer  that  nonsense  which  is  grown  half  venerable 
from  time,  the  force  of  which  I  have  already  tried  and 
baffled,  which  at  least  has  some  excuse  in  the  dark  and  ig- 
norant ages  in  which  it  originated.  The  religiou^  enthu- 
siasm manufactured  by  living  men  before  my  own  eyes, 
disgusts  my  understanding  as  much,  influences  my  ima- 
gination not  at  ail,  and  excites  my  apprehensions  much 
more. 

I  may  have  seemed  to  you  to  treat  the  situation  of  pub- 
lic aflPaIrs  with  some  degree  of  levity  ;  but  I  feel  it  deeply, 
and  with  nightly  and  i.aily  anguish;  because  I  know  Ire- 
laid  ;  I  have  known  it  all  my  life  i  I  love  it,  and  }  foresee 
the  crisis  to  whicii  it  will  soon  be  exposed.  Who  can 
doubt  but  that  Ireland  wiM  experience  ultimately  from 
France  a  treatment,  to  which  the  conduct  they  have  expe- 
rienced from  England  is  the  love  of  a  parent,  or  a  brother? 
Wiio  c  n  uonbt  but  that  five  years  after  be  has  got  ho  d  of 
the  couijtrv'j  Ireland  will  be  tossed  away  by  Bonaparte  as 


40 

a  present  to  some  one  of  his  ruffian  generals,  who  will 
knock  the  head  of  Mr.  Keogh  against  the  head  of  C  ardinal 
Troy,  shoot  twenty  of  the  most  noisy  blockheads  of  the 
Koman  persuasion,  wash  his  pug-dogs  in  ho'y  water,  and 
confiscate  the  salt  butter  of  the  Milesian  Republic  to  the 
last  tub.  But  what  matters  this?  or  who  is  wise  enough 
in  Ireland  to  heed  it  ?  or  when  had  common  sense  much 
influence  with  the  poor  dear  Irish  ?  Mr.  Perceval  does  not 
know  the  Irish  ;  but  I  know  them,  and  I  kro  that,  at' 
every  rash  and  mad  hazard,  they  will  break  the  Unio  ,  re- 
venge their  wounded  pride,  and  their  insulted  religion, 
and  fling  themselves  into  the  open  arms  of  France,  sure  of 
dying  in  the  embrace.  And  now  what  means  have  you  of 
guarding  against  this  coming  evil,  upon  which  the  future 
happiness  or  misery  of  every  Englishman  depends  ?  Have 
you  a  single  ally  in  the  whole  world  ?  Is  there  a  vulnera- 
ble point  in  the  French  Empire,  where  the  astonishing  re- 
sources of  that  people  can  be  attracted  and  employed  ? 
Have  you  a  ministry  wise  enough  to  comprehend  the  dan- 
ger, manly  enough  to  believe  unpleasant  intelligence,  ho> 
nest  enough  to  state  their  apprehensions  at  the  peril  of 
their  places  ?  Is  there  any  where  the  slightest  disposition 
to  join  any  measure  of  love,  or  concilation,  or  hope,  with 
that  dreadful  bill  which  the  distractions  of  Ireland  have 
rendered  necessary  ?  At  the  very  moment  that  the  last 
Alonarchy  in  Europe  has  fallen,  are  we  not  governed  by  a 
man  of  pleasantry,  and  a  man  of  theology  ?  In  the  six 
hundredth  year  cf  our  Empire  over  Ireland,  have  we  any 
memorial  of  ancient  kindness  to  refer  to  ?  Any  people, 
any  zeal,  any  country  on  which  we  can  depend  ?  Have  we 
any  ho  e,  but  in  the  winds  of  heaven,  and  the  tides  of  the 
sea  ?  any  prayer  to  jrefer  to  the  Irish,  but  thi.t  they 
should  furget  and  forgive  their  oppressors,  who,  in  the 
very  moment  that  they  are  calling  upon  them  for  their  ex- 
ertions, solemnly  assure  them  that  the  oppression  shall  still 
remain  ? 

Abraham,  farewell !  If  I  have  tired  you,  remember  how 
often  you  have  tired  me,  and  others.  I  do  not  think  we 
really  "differ  in  politics  so  much  as  you  suppose  ;  or  at 
least,  if  we  do,  that  difference  is  in  the  means,  and  not  in 
the  end.  We  both  love  the  Constitution,  respect  the 
King,  and  abhor  the  French.  But  though  you  love  the 
Constitution,  you  would  perpetuate  the  abuses  which  have 
been  ingrafted  upon  it  ;  though  you  respect  the  King, 
you  would   confirm  his  scruples  against  the  Catholics  ; 


41 

though  you  abhor  the  French,  you  would  open  to  thejin 
the  conquest  of  Ireland.  My  method  of  respecting  my 
Sovereign,  is  by  protecting  his  honour,  his  empire,  and  his 
lasting  happiness  ;  I  evince  my  love  of  the  Constitution, 
by  making  it  the  guardian  of  all  men's  rights,  and  the 
source  of  their  freedom  ;  and  I  prove  my  abhorrence  of 
the  French,  by  uniting  against  them  the  disciples  of  every 
Church  in  the  only  remaining  nation  in  Europe.  As  for 
the  men  of  whom  I  have  been  compelled  in  this  age  of  me- 
diocrit)'  to  say  so  much,  they  cannot  of  themselves  be 
worth  a  moment's  consideration,  to  you,  to  me,  or  to  any 
body.  In  a  year  after  their  death,  they  will  be  forgotten 
as  com;  letely  as  if  they  had  never  been  ;  and  are  now  of 
no  farther  importance,  than  as  they  are  the  mere  vehicles 
of  carrying  into  effect  the  common-place  and  mischievous 
prejudices  of  the  times  in  which  they  live. 


LETTER  VL 

\ 

Dear  Abraham ^ 

What  amuses  me  the  most  is,  to  hear  of  the  indulgencei 
which  t-he  Catholics  have  received,  and  their  exorbitance 
in  not  being  satisfied  with  those  indulgences:  now  if  you 
complain  to  me  that  a  man  is  obtrusive,  and  shameless  in 
Jiis  requests,  and  that  it  is  impossible  to  bring  him  to  rea- 
son, I  must  first  of  all  hear  the  whole  of  your  conduct  to- 
wards him  ;  for  you  may  have  taken  from  iiim  so  much 
in  the  first  instance,  that,  in  spite  of  a  long  scries  of  res- 
titutions, a  vast  latitude  for  petition  may  still  remain  be- 
liind. 

There  is  a  village  (no  matter  where)  in  which  the  inha- 
bitants, on  one  day  in  the  year,  sit  down  to  a  dinner  pre- 
pared at  the  common  expence  :  by  an  extraordinary  piece 
of  tyranny  (which  Lord  Hav.kesbury  would  call  the  wis- 
dom of  the  village  ancestors)  the  inhabitants  of  three  of 
the  streets,  about  an  hundred  years  ago,  seized  upontlie 
inhabitants  of  the  fourth  street,  bound  them  hand  and  foot, 
laid  them  upon  their  backs,  and  compelled  them  to  look 
on  while  the  rest  were  Stuffing  themselves  ^kh  beef  and 
F 


42 

beer :  the  next  year,  the  inhabitants  of  the  persecuted 
street  (though  they  contributed  an  equal  quota  of  the  ex- 
pence)  were  treated  precisely  in  the  same  manner.  The 
tyranny  grew  into  a  custom  ;  and  (as  the  manner  of  our 
nature  is)  it  was  considered  as  the  most  sacred  of  all  du- 
ties, to  keep  these  poor  fellows  without  their  annual  din- 
ner :  the  village  was  so  tenacious  of  this  practice,  that 
nothing  could  induce  them  to  resign  it ;  every  enemy  to  it 
was  looked  upon  as  a  disbeliever  in  divine  providence,  and 
any  nefarious  churchwarden  who  wished  to  succeed  in  his 
election,  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  represent  his  antagonist 
as  an  abolitionist,  in  order  to  frustrate  his  ambition,  en- 
danger his  life,  and  throw  the  village  into  a  state  of  the 
most  dreadful  commotion.  By  degrees,  however,  the  ob- 
noxious street  grew  to  be  so  well  peopled,  and  its  inhabi- 
tants so  firmly  united,  that  their  oppressors  more  afraid  of 
injustice,  were  more  disposed  to  be  just.  At  the  next  din- 
ner they  are  unbound,  the  year  after  allowed  to  sit  up- 
right, then  a  bit  of  bread,  and  a  glass  of  water  ;  till  at 
last,  after  a  long  series  of  concessions,  they  are  embol- 
dened to  ask  in  pretty  plain  terras,  that  they  may  be  al- 
lowed to  sit  down  at  the  bottom  of  the  table,  and  to  fill 
their  bellies  as  well  as  the  rest.  Forthwith  a  general  cr}- 
of  shame  and  scandal  :  "  Ten  years  ago,  were  you  not 
laid  upon  your  backs  ?  Don't  you  remember  what  a  great 
thing  you  thought  it  to  get  a  piece  of  bread  ?  How  thank- 
ful you  were  for  cheeseparings  ?  Have  you  forgotten  that 
memorable  aera,  when  the  lord  of  the  manor  interfered  to 
obtain  for  you  a  slice  of  the  public  pudding  ?  And  now, 
with  an  audacity  only  equalled  by  your  ingratitude,  you 
have  the  impudence  to  ask  for  knives  and  forks,  and  to  re- 
quest, in  terms  too  plain  to  be  mistaken,  that  you  may  sit 
down  to  table  with  the  rest,  and  be  indulged  even  with 
heef  and  beer  :  there  are  not  more  than  half  a  dozen 
dishes  which  we  have  reserved  for  ourselves  ;  the  rest  has 
been  thrown  open  to  you  in  the  utmost  profusion  ;  you 
have  potatoes,  and  carrots,  suet  dumplings,  sops  in  the 
pan,  and  delicious  toast  and  water,  in  incredible  quanti- 
ties. Beef,  mutton,  lamb,  pork  and  veal  are  ours;  and 
if  you  were  not  the  most  restless,  and  dissatisfied  of  hu- 
man beings,  you  would  never  think  of  aspiring  to  enjoy 

Is  not  this,  my  dainty  Abraham,  the  very  nonsense,  and 
the  very  insult  which  is  talked  to,  and  practised  upon  the 
Oatholics  ?  You  are  surprised  that  men  who  have  tasted  of 


.3 


partial  justice  should  ask  for  perfect  justice  ;  that  lie  who 
has  been  robbed  of  coat,  and  cloak  will  not  be  contented 
with  the  restitution  of  one  of  his  garments.  He  would  be 
a  very  lazy  blockhead  if  he  were  content,  and  I  (who, 
though  an  inhabitant  of  the  village,  have  preserved,  thank 
God,  some  sense  of  justice)  most  earnestl}'  counsel  these 
half  fed  claimants  to  persevere  in  their  just  demands,  till 
they  are  admitted  to  a  more  complete  share  of  a  dinner  for 
which  they  pay  as  much  as  the  others  ;  and  if  they  see  a 
little  attenuated  lawyer  squabbling  at  the  head  of  their 
opponents,  let  them  desire  him  to  empty  his  pockets,  and 
to  pull  out  all  the  pieces  of  duck,  fowl,  and  pudding, 
which  he  has  filched  from  the  public  feast,  to  carry  home 
to  his  wife  and  children. 

You  parade  a  gi-eat  deal  upon  the  vast  concessions  made 
by  this  country  to  the  Irish  beforethe  Union.     I  deny  that 
any  voluntary    concession   was  ever  made  by  England  to 
Ireland.     What  did  Ireland  ever  ask  that  was  granted  ? 
What  did  she  ever  demand  that  was  refused  ?    How  did 
«he  get  a  mutiny   bill — a  limited  parliament — a  repeal  of 
Poyning's  Law — a  constitution  ?  Not  by  the  concessions 
of  England,  but  by  her  fears.     When  Ireland  asked  for  all 
these  things  upon  her  knees,  her  petitions  were  rejected 
with    Percevalism   and  contempt :    when   she   demanded 
them  with   the  voice   of  60,000   armed  men,   they  were 
granted  with  every  mark  of  consternation,  and  dismay. — 
.Ask   of  Lord  Auckland  the  fatal  consequences  of  trifling 
with  such  a  people  as  the  Irish.     He  himself  was  the  or- 
gan of  these  refusals.     As  secretary  to  the  Lord  Lieute- 
nant, the  insolence  and  the  tyranny  of  this  country  passed 
through  his  hands.     Ask  him  if  he  remembers  the  conse- 
quences.    Ask  him  if  he  has  forgotten  that  memorable 
evening,  when  he  came  down  booted  and  mantled  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  when  he  told  the  House  he  was  about 
to  set  off  for  Ireland  that  night,  and  declared  before  God", 
if  he  did  not  carry  with  him  a  compliance  with  all  their 
demands,  Ireland  was  for  ever  lost  to  this  country.     The 
present  generation   have  forgotten   this  ;  but  I  have   not 
forgotten  it  ;  and   I   know  hasty  and   undignified  as  the 
submission  of  England,  then  was,  that  Lord  Auckland  was 
right,  that  the  delay  of  a  single  day  might  very  probably 
have  separated  the  two  people  for  ever.     The  terms  sub- 
mission and  fear  are  galling  terms  when  applied  from  the 
lesser  nation  to  the  greater  ;  but  it  is  the  plain  historical 
truth,  it  is  the  natural  cou'^nqnencc  of  injustice,  it  is  the 


u 

predicament  in  wTiich  every  country  places  itself,  which 
leaves  such  a  mass  of  hatred  and  discontent  by  it^  side, 
]No  empire  is  powerful  enough  to  endure  it  ;  it  would  ex- 
haust the  strength  of  Cliina,  and  sink  it  with  all  its  manda- 
rins and  tea-kettles  to  the  bottom  of  the  deep.     By  refus- 
ing them  justice,  now  when  you  are  strong  enough  to  re- 
fuse them  any  thing  more  than  justice,  you  will  act  over 
again,  with  the  Catholics,  the  same  scene  of  mean  and  pre- 
cipitate submission  which  disgraced  you  before  America 
and  before  the  volunteers  of  Ireland.  We  shall  live  to  hear 
the  Hampstead  Protestatit  pronouncing  such  extravagant 
panegyrics  upon  holy   water,  and  paying  such   fulsome 
compliments  to  the  thumbs  and  ©tTals  of  departed  saints, 
that   parties   will  change  sentiments,    and    Lord    Henry 
Petty,  and    Sam  Whitbread  take  a  spell  at  No  Popery. — 
The  wisdom  of  Mr.  Fox  was  alike  employed  in  teaching 
his  country  justice  when  Ireland  was  weak,  and  dignity 
when  Ireland  was  strong.     We  are  fast  pacing  round  the 
same   miserable    circle   of  ruin,   and  imbecility.      Alas  1 
where  is  our  guide  ? 

You  say  that  Ireland  is  a  mill-stone  about  our  necks  ; 
that  it  would  be  better  for  us  if  Ireland  were  sunk  at  the 
bottom  of  the  sea  ;  that  the  Irish  are  a  nation  of  irreclaima- 
ble savages  and  barbarians.  How  often  have  I  heard  these 
sentiments  fall  from  the  plump  and  thoughtless  squire, and 
from  the  thriving  English  shop-keeper,  who  has  never  felt 
the  rod  of  an  Orange  master  upon  his  back.  Ireland  a 
mill-stone  about  your  neck  !  Why  is  it  not  a  stone  of  Ajax 
in  your  hand  ?  I  agree  with  you  mo^  cordially,  that,  go- 
verned as  Ireland  now  is,  it  would  be  a  vast  accession  of 
strength  if  the  waves  of  the  sea  were  to  rise,  and  ingulph 
her  to-morrow.  At  this  moment,  opposed  as  we  are  to  all 
the  world,  the  annihilation  of  one  of  the  most  fertile 
islands  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  containing  five  millions 
of  human  creatures,  would  be  one  of  the  most  solid  ad- 
vantages which  could  happen  to  this  country.  I  doubt 
very  much,  in  spite  of  all  the  abuse  v/hich  has  been  lavish- 
ed upon  Bonaparte,  whether  there  is  any  one  of  his  con- 
quered countries  the  blotting  out  of  which  would  be  as 
beneficial  to  him  as  the  destruction  of  Ireland  would  be  to 
us  :  of  countries  I  speak  differing  in  language  from  the 
French,  little  habituated  to  their  intercourse,  and  inflamed 
tvith  all  the  resentments  of  a  recently  conquered  people. — 
Why  will  you  attribute  the  turbulence  of  our  people  to 
any  cause  but  the  right— to  any  cause  but  your  own  scan- 


45 

dalous  oppression  ?  If  you  tie  your  horse  up  to  a  gate, 
and  beat  him  cruelly,  is  he  vicious  because  he  kicks  you  ? 
If  you  have  plagued,  and  worried  a  mastiff  dog  f-r  years, 
is  he  mad  because  he  flies  at  you  whenever  he  sees  you  ? 
Hatred  is  an  active,  troublesome  passion.  Depend  upon 
it,  whole  nations  have  always  some  reason  for  their  ha- 
tred. Before  you  refer  the  turbulence  of  the  Irish  to  in-  / 
curable  defects  in  their  character,  tell  me  if  you  have 
treated  them  as  friends  and  equals  ?  Have  you  protected 
their  commerce  ?  Have  you  respected  their  religion  ? 
Have  you  been  as  anxious  for  their  freedom  as  your  own  ? 
Nothing  of  all  this.  What  then  ?  Why  you  have  confis- 
cated the  territorial  surface  of  the  country  twice  over  : 
you  have  massacred  and  exported  her  inhabitants  :  you 
have  deprived  four-fifths  of  them  of  every  civil  privilege  ; 
you  have  at  every  period  made  her  commerce  and  manu- 
factures slavishly  subordinate  to  your  own  :  and  yet  the 
hatred  which  the  Irish  bear  to  you  is  the  result  of  an  ori- 
ginal turbulence  of  character,  and  of  a  primitive  obdu- 
rate wildness  utterly  incapable  of  civilization.  The  em- 
broidered inanities  and  the  sixth-form  effusions  of  Mr. 
Canning  are  really  not  powerful  enough  to  make  me  be- 
lieve this  ;  nor  is  there  any  authority  on  earth  (always 
excepting  the  Dean  of  Christchurch)  which  could  make  it 
credible  to  me.  I  am  sick  of  Mr.  Canning.  There  is 
not  a  happ'orth  of  bread  to  all  his  sugar  and  sack.  I  love 
not  the  cretaceous  and  incredible  countenance  of  his  col- 
league. The  only  opinion  in  which  I  agree  with  these 
two  gentlemen,  is  that  which  they  entertain  of  each  other; 
I  am  sure  that  the  insolence  of  Pitt,  and  the  unbalanced 
accounts  of  Melville,  were  far  better  than  the  perils  of 
this  new  ignorance  : 

Nonnft  fuit  satius  tristes  Amaryllidis  Iras 
,  Atque  superba  pati  fastidia, — nonne  Menalcam^ 
Qiiamvis  ille  ni^er  ? 

In  the  midst  of  the  mo^  profound  peace,  the  secret  ar- 
ticles of  the  treaty  of  Tilsit,  in  which  the  destruction  of 
Ireland  is  resolved  upon,  induce  you  to  rob  the  Danes  of 
their  fleet.  After  the  expedition  sailed  comes  the  treaty 
of  Tilsit,  containing  no  article,*  public  or  private,  allud- 
ing to  Ireland.  The  state  of  the  world,  you  tell  me,  jus- 
tified us  in  doing  this.     Just  God!  do  we  think  only^  of* 

*  This  is  now  completely  confessed  to  be  the  case  bj^  ministcj-s. 


46 

the  state  of  the  world  when  there  is  an  opportunity  for 
robbery,  for  murder,  and  for  j  hinder ;  and  do  ve  forget 
the  state  of  the  world  when  we  are  called  upon  to  be  wise, 
and  good,  and  just  ?  Does  the  state  of  the  world  never  re- 
mind us,  that  we  have  four  millions  of  subjects  whose  in- 
juries we  ought  to  atone  for,  and  whose  affections  we  ought 
to  conciliate  ?  Does  the  state  of  the  world  never  warn  us 
to  lay  aside  our  infernal  bigotry,  and  to  Arm  every  man 
who  acknowledges  a  God  and  can  grasp  a  sword  ?  Did  it 
never  occur  to  this  administration,  that  thev  might  virtu- 
ousl%-  get  bold  of  a  force  ten  times  greater  than  the  force 
of  the  Danish  fleet  ?  Was  there  no  other  way  of  protect- 
ing Ireland,  but  b}^  bringing  eternal  shame  upon  Great 
Britain,  and  by  making  the  earth  a  den  of  robbers  ?  See 
what  the  men  whom  you  have  supplanted  would  have 
done.  They  would  have  rendered  the  invasion  of  Ireland 
impossible,  by  restoring  to  the  Catholics  their  long  lost 
rights:  they  would  have  acted  in  such  a  manner  that  the 
French  would  neither  have  wished  for  invasion,  nor  dared 
to  attempt  it  :  they  would  have  increased  the  permanent 
strength  of  the  country  while  they  preserved  its  reputa- 
tion unsullied.  Nothing  of  this  kind  your  friends  have 
done,  because  they  are  solemnly  pledged  to  do  nothing 
of  this  kind  ;  because  to  tolerate  all  religions,  and  to 
equalize  civil  rights  lo  all  sects,  is  to  oppose  some  of  the 
worst  passions  of  our  nature, — to  plunder  and  to  oppress 
is  to  gratify  them  all.  They  wanted  the  huzzas  of  mobs, 
and  they  have  for  ever  blasted  the  fame  of  England  to  ob- 
tain them.  Were  the  fleets  of  Holland,  France,  and 
Spain,  destroyed  by  larceny  ?  You  resisted  the  power  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty  sail  of  the  line  b}-  sheer  courage, 
and  violated  every  principle  of  morals  from  the  dread  of 
Tifteen  hulks,  while  the  expedition  itself  cost  you  three 
times  more  than  the  value  of  the  larcenous  matter  brought 
awa}.  The  French  trample  upon  the  laws  of  God  and 
man,  not  for  old  cordage,  but  for  kingdoms,  and  always 
take  care  to  be  well  paid  for  their  crimes.  We  contrive, 
under  the  present  administration,  to  unite  moral  with  in- 
tellectual deficiency,  and  to  grow  weaker  and  worse  by 
the  same  action.  If  they  had  any  evidence  of  the  intend- 
ed hostility  of  the  Danes,  wh^  was  it  not  produced  ?  Why 
have  the  nations  of  Europe  been  allowed  to  feel  an  indig- 
nation against  this  country  beyond  the  reach  of  all  subse- 
quent information  ?  Are  these  times,  do  you  imagine, 
when  we  can  trifle  w;'h  a  year  of  universal  hatred,  dallv 


47 

with  the  curses  of  Europe,  and  then  regain  a  lost  charac- 
ter at  pleasure,  by  the  parliamentary  perspirations  of  the 
foreign  secretary,  or  the  solemn  asseverations  of  the  pecu- 
niary Rose  r  Believe  me,  Abraham,  it  is  not  under  such 
ministers  as  these  that  the  dexterity  of  honest  Englishmen 
will  ever  equal  the  dexterity  of  French  knaves  ;  it  is  not 
in  their  presence  that  the  serpent  of  Moses  will  ever  swal- 
low up  the  serpents  of  the  magicians. 

Lord  Hartkesbury  says,  that  nothing  is  to  be  granted  to 
the  Catholics  from  fear.  What  I  not  even  justice.'  U'hy 
not?  There  are  lour  millions  of  disaffected,  people  within 
twenty  miles  of  your  own  coast.  I  fairly  confess  that  the 
dread  which  I  have  of  their  physical  power,  is  with  me  a 
very  strong  motive  for  listening  to  their  claims  ;  to  talk  of 
not  acting  from  fear  is  mere  parliamentarv  cant  ;  from 
what  motive  but  fear  I  should  be  glad  to  know  have  all  the , 
improvements  in  our  Constitution  proceeded  r  1  question 
if  any  justice  has  ever  been  done  to  large  masses  of  man- 
kind from  any  other  motive ;  by  what  other  motives  can 
the  plunderers  of  the  Baltic  suppose  nations  to  be  govern- 
ed in  their  intercourse  xvUh  each  other  i  If  I  say,  give  this 
people  what  they  ask  because  it  is  just,  do  vou  think  I 
should  get  ten  j  eople  to  listen  to  me  ?  Would  not  the  les- 
ser of  the  two  Jenkinsons  be  the  first  to  treat  me  with 
contempt  ?  The  only  true  way  to  make  the  mass  of  man- 
kind see  the  beauty  of  justice,  is  by  shewing  to  them  in 
pretty  plain  terms  the  consequences  of  injustice.  If  anv 
body  of  French  troops  land  in  Ireland,  the  whole  popula- 
tion of  that  country  will  rise  against  you  to  a  man,  and 
you  could  not  possibly  survive  such  an  event  three  years. 
Such,  from  the  bottom  of  my  soul,  do  I  believe  to  be  the 
present  state  of  that  country  ;  and  so  far  does  it  appear  to 
me  to  be  impolitic  and  unstatesmanlike  to  concede  any 
thing  to  such  a  danger,  that  if  the  Catholics,  in  addition 
to  their  present  just  demands,  were  to  petition  for  the  per- 
petual removal  of  the  said  Lord  Hawkesbury  from  his  ?kla- 
jesty's  councils,  I  think,  whatever  might  be  the  effect  upon 
the  destinies  of  Europe,  and  however  it  might  retard  our 
own  individual  destruction,  that  the  prayer  of  the  petition 
should  be  instantly  complied  with.  Canning's  crocodile 
tears  should  not  move  me  ;  the  hoops  of  the  maids  of  ho- 
nour should  not  hide  him.  I  would  tear  him  from  the, 
bannisters  of  the  back  stairs,  and  plunge  him  in  the  fishv 
fumes  of  the  dirtiest  of  all  his  Cinque  Ports. 


is 


LETTER  VII. 


'    Deal'  Abrahayn, 

In  the  correspondence  which  is  passing  between  us,  }^u 
are  perpetually  alluding  to  the  Foreign  Secretary;  and,  in 
answer  to  the  dangers  of  Ireland,  which  I  am  pressing  upon 
your  notice,  you  have  nothing  to  urge  but  the  confidence 
which  you  repose  in  the  discretion,  and  sound  sense  of  this 
gentleman.*  I  can  only  say,  that  I  have  listened  to  him 
long,  and  often,  with  the  greatest  attention  ;  I  have  used 
every  exertion  in  my  power  to  take  a  fair  measure  of  him, 
and  it  appears  to  me  impossible  to  hear  him  upon  any  ar- 
duous topic  without  perceiving,  that  he  is  eminently  defi- 
cient in  tho^  solid,  and  serious  qualities  upon  which,  and 
upon  which  alone  the  confidence  of  a  great  country  can 
properly  repose.  He  sweats,  and  labours,  and  works  for 
sense,  and  Mr.  Ellis  seems  always  to  think  it  is  coming, 
but  it  does  not  come  ;  the  machine  can't  draw  up  what  is 
not  to  be  found  in  the  spring  ;  Providence  has  made  him 
alight  jesting  paragraph  writing  man,  and  that  he  will  re- 
main to  his  dying  day.  When  he  is  jocular  he  is  strong, 
when  he  is  serious  he  is  like  Sampson  in  a  wig  ;  any  ordi- 
nary person  is  a  match  for  him  ;  a  song,  an  ironical  let- 
ter, a  burlesque  ode,  an  attack  in  the  newspaper  upon 
T^ichoU's  eye,  a  smart  speech  of  twenty  minutes,  full  of 
gross  misrepresentations  and  clever  turns,  excellent  lan- 
guage, a  spirited  manner,  lucky  quotation,  success  in  pro- 
voking dull  men,  some  half  information  picked  up  in  Pall 
Mall  in  the  morning  :  these  are  your  friend's  natural  wea- 
pons ;  all  these  things  he  can  do  ;  here  I  allow  him  to  be 
truly  great  :  nay,  I  will  be  just,  and  go  still  farther,  if  he 
would  confine  himself  to  these  things,  and  consider  the 


*  The  attack  upon  virtue  and  morals  in  the  debate  upon  Copenhagen, 
is  brought  forward  with  great  ostentation  by  tliis  gentleman's  friends. 
But  is  harlequin  less  harlequin,  because  he  acts  well  ?  I  was  present  : 
he  leaped  about,  touched  facts  with  has  wand,  turned  yes  into  no,  and  no 
into  yes,  it  was  a  pantomime  well  played,  but  a  pantomime  :  Harlequin 
deserves  higher  wages  than  he  did  two  years  .ngo  :  Is  he  therefore  fit  lor 
serious  parts  ? 


.49 

faccte  and  the  playful  to  be  the  basis  of  his  character,  he 
would,  for  that  species  of  man,  be  universally  reg;arded  to 
he  a  person  of  a  very  good  understanding  ;  call  him  a  le- 
gislator, a  reasoner,  and  the  conductor  of  the  affairs  of  a 
great  nation,  and  it  seems  to  me  as  absurd  as  if  a  butterfly 
were  to  teach  bees  to  make  honey.  That  he  is  an  extraor- 
dinary writer  of  small  poetry,  and  a  diner-out  of  the 
highest  lustre  I  do  most  readily  admit.  After  George 
Selwvn,  and  perarps  Tickell,  there  has  been  no  such  man 
for  this  half  century.  The  Foreign  Secretary  is  a  gentle- 
man, a  respectable,  as  well  as  an  highly  agreeable  man  in 
private  life  ;  but  you  may  as  well  feed  me  with  decayed 
potatoes  as  console  me  for  the  miseries  of  Ireland  by  the 
resources  of  his  sense  and  his  discretioyi.  It  is  only  the 
public  situation  which  this  gentleman  holds  which  entitles 
me,  or  induces  me  to  say  so  much  about  him.  He  is  a  fly 
in  amber,  nobody  cares  about  the  fly  :  the  only  question 
is,  how  the  devil  did  he  get  there  ?  Nor  do  I  attack  him 
from  the  love  of  glory,  but  from  the  love  of  utility,  as  a 
burgomaster  hunts  a  rat  in  a  Dutch  dyke,  for  fear  it  should 
flood  a  province. 

The  friends  of  the   Catholic  question  are,  I   observe, 
extremely  embarrassed  in  arguing  when  they  come  to  the 
loyalty   of  the   Irish   Catholics.     As  for  me,   I  shall   go 
straight  forward  to  my  object,  and  state  what  I  have  no 
manner  of  doubt  from  an  intimate  knowledge  of  Ireland, 
to  be  the  plain  truth.     Of  the  great  Roman  Catholic  pro- 
prietors, and  of  the  Catholic  prelates,  there  may  be  a  few, 
and  but  a  few  who  would  follow  the  fortunes  of  England  at 
all  events :  there  is  another  set   of  men  who,  thoroughly- 
detesting  this  country,  have  too  much  property  and  too 
much  character  to  lose,  not  to  wait  for  some  very  favour- 
able event  before  they  shew  themselves  ;  but  the  great 
mass  of  Catholic  population,  upon  the  slightest  appearance 
of  a  French  force  in  that  country,  would  rise  upon  you  to 
a  man.     It  is  the  most  mistaken  policy  to  conceal  the  plain 
truth.     There  is  no  loyalty  among  the  Catholics ;  they 
detest  you  as  their  worst  oppressors,  and  they  will  conti- 
nue to  detest  you,  till  you  remove  the  cause  of  their  ha- 
tred.    It  is  in  your  power  in  six  months  time  to  produce  a 
total  revolution  of  opinions  among   this  people  ;  and   in 
some  future  letter  I  will  shew  you  that  this  is  clearly  the 
case.     At  present,  see  what  a  dreadful  state  Ireland  is  in. 
The  common  toast  among  the  low  Irish  is,  the  feast  of  the- 
passover.     Some  allusion  to  Bonaparte^  in  a  play  lately 
G 


Q 


fr 


jtcted  at  Dublin,  produced  thunders  of  applause  from  the 
pit  and  the  galleries  ;  and  a  politician  should  not  be  inat- 
tentive to  the  publio  feelings  expressed  in  theatres.     Mb.. 
Perceval  thinks  he  has  disarmed  the  Irish  :  he  has  no  more 
disarmed  the  Irish  than  he  has  resigned  a  shilling  of  his 
own  public  emoluments.     An  Irish*  peasant  fills  the  bar- 
rel of  his   gun  full   of  tow  dipped  in  oil,  butters  up  the 
lock,  buries  it  in  a  bog,  and  allows  the  Orange  bloodhound 
to  ransack  his  cottage  at   pleasure.     Be  just  and  kind  to 
the  Irish,  and  you  will  indeed  disarm  them  ;  rescue  them 
from  the  degraded  servitude  in  which  they  are  held  by  an 
handful  of  their  own  countrymen,  and  you  will  add  four 
millions  of  brave  and  affectionate  men  to  your  strength.— 
Nightly  visits,  protestant  inspectors,  licences  Co  possess  a 
pistol,  or  a  knife  and  fork,  the  odious  vigour  of  the  evan- 
gelical  Perceval — acts  of  parliament,  drawn  up  by  some 
English  attorney,  to  save  you  from  the  hatred  of  four  mil- 
lion people— the  guarding  yourselves  from  universal  dis- 
affection by  a  police  ;  a  confidence  in  the  little  cunning  of 
Bow-street,  when  you  might  rest  your  security  upon  the 
eternal  basis  of  the  best  feelings  :  this  is  the  meanness, 
and  madness  to  which,  nations  are  reduced  when  they  lose 
sight  ol  the  first  elements  of  justice,  without  which  a  coun- 
try can  be  no  more  secure  than  it  can  be  healthy  without 
air.     I  sicken  at  such  policy  and  such  men.     The  fact  is, 
the  ministers  know  nothing  about  the  present  state  of  Ire- 
land ;  Mr.  Perceval  sees  a  few  clergymen,   Lord  CaStle- 
reagh  a  few  general  officers,  who  take  care,  of  course,  to 
report  what  is  pleasant,  rather  than  what  is  true.     As  for 
the  joyous,  and  lepid  consul,  he  jokes  upon  neutral  flags 
^  and  frauds,  jokes  upon  Irish  rebels,  jokes  upon  northern, 
and  western,  and  southern  foes,  and  gives  himself  no  trou- 
ble upon  any  subject :  nor  is  the  mediocrity  of  the  idol- 
atrous deputy  of  the  slightest  use.     Dissolved  in  grins,  he* 
reads  no  memorials  upon  the  state  of  Ireland,  listens  to  no 
reports,  asks  no  questions,  and  is  the 

••  Bourn  from  whom  no  traveller  returns."  * 

The  danger  of  an  immediate  insurrection  is^  now,  /  be- 
Iit'-je,f  blown  over.      You  have  so  strong  an  army  in  Ire- 


•  No  man  who  is  not  intimately  acquainted  with  the  Irish,  can  tell  to 
\vhat  a  curious  extent  this  concealment  of  arms  is  carried.  I  have  stated 
the  exact  mode  in  which  it  is  done. 

•}■  1  know  too  much,  however,  of  tlic  state  of  Ireland,  not  to^  speak 
trembling-ly  about  this.    I  hope  to  God  I  am  right. 


51 

land,  and  the  Irish  are  become  so  much  more  cunning  from 
the  last  insurrection,  that  you  may   perhaps  be  tolerably 
secure  just  at  present  from  that  evil  :  but  are  you  secure 
from  the  efforts  which  the  French  may  make  to  throw  a 
body  of  troops  into  Ireland  ?  and  do   you  consider  that 
event  to  be  difficult  and  improbable  ?    From   Brest   Har- 
bour to  Cape  St.  Vincent,  you  have  above  three  thousand 
miles  of  hostile  sea  coast,  and  twelve  or  fourteen  harbours 
quite  capable  of  containing  a  sufficient  force  for  the  pow- 
erful invasion  of  Ireland.     The  nearest  of  these  harbours 
is  not  two  days  sail  from  the  southern  coast  of  Ireland, 
with  a  fair  leading  wind  ;  and  the  farthest  not  ten.     Five 
ships  of  the  line,  for  so  very  short  a  passage,  might  carry 
five  or  six  thousand  troops  with  cannon  and  ammunition  ; 
and  Ireland  presents  to  their  attack  a  southern  coast  of 
more  than    fivp   himdrpH    milec,   nhnunHiiig  in  dp.p.p  bays, 
admirable    harbours,  and   disaffected   inhabitants.     Your 
blockading  ships  may  be  forced  to  come  home  for  provisi- 
ons and  repairs,  or  they  way  be   blown   off"  in  a  gale  of 
wind  and  compelled  to  bear  away  for  their  own  coast : — 
and  you  will  observe  that  the  very  same  wind  which  locks 
you  up  in  the  British  Channel  when  you  are  got  there  ;  is 
eminently  favourable  for  the  invasion  of  Ireland.     And 
yet  this  is  called  Government,  and  the  people  huzza  Friav 
Perceval,  for  continuing  to  expose  bis  country  day  after 
day  to  such  tremendous  perils  as  these  ;  cursing  the  men 
who  would  have  given  up   a  question  in  theology  to  have 
saved  u?  from  such  a  risque.     The  British  Empire  at  this 
moipent  is  in  the  state  of  a  peach  blossom,  if  the  wind 
blows  gently   from   one  quarter  it  survives,   if  furiously 
from  the  other  it  perishes.     A  stiff"  breeze  may  set  in  from 
the  north,  theRochefort  squadron  will  be  taken,  and  the 
Friar  will  be   the  most  holy   of  men  ;  if  it  comes   from 
some  other  pp^nt,  Ireland  is  gone,  we  curse  ourselves  as  a 
set  of  monastic  madmen,  and  call  out  for  the  unavailing 
satisfaction  of  Mr.  Perceval's  head.     Such  a  state  of  po- 
litical existence  is  scarcely  credible  ;  it  is  the  action  of  a 
mad  young  fool  standing  upon  one  foot  and  peeping  down 
the  crater  of  Mount  ^tna,  not  the  conduct  of  a  wise  and 
a.  sober  people  deciding  upon  their  best  and  dearest  inter- 
ests :  and  in  the  name,  the  much  injured  name  of  heaven, 
what  is  it  all  for,   that   we  expose  ourselves  to  these  dan- 
gers ?  Is  it  that  we  may  sell  more  muslin?  Is  it  that  we 
may  acquire  more  territory  ?  Is  it  that  we  may  strengthen 
•<f/hat  we  have  already  acquired  ?  No  :  nothing  of  all  this ; 


m 

but  that  one  set  of  Irishmen  may  torture  awother  set  of 
Irishmen,  that  Sir  Phelem  O'Callagan  may  continue  to 
whip  Sir  Toby  M'Tackle,  his  next  door  neighbour,  and 
continue  to  ravish  his  Catholic  daughters  ;  and  these  are 
the  measures  which  the  honest  and  consistent  Secretary 
supports;  and  this  is  the  Secretary  whose  genius  in  the 
estimation  of  brother  Abraham  is  to  extinguish  the  ge- 
nius of  Bonaparte.  Pompey  was  killed  by  a  slave,  Goliak 
smitten  by  a  stripling,  Pyrrhus  died  by  the  hand  of  a  wo- 
man ;  tremble  thou  great  Gaul,  from  whose  head  an  arm- 
ed Minerva  leaps  forth  in  the  hour  of  danger  ;  tremble 
thou  scourge  of  God,  a  pleasant  man  is  come  out  against 
thee,  and  thoushalt  belaid  low  by  a  joker  of  jokes,  and  he 
shall  talk  his  pleasant  talk  against  thee,  and  thou  shalt  be 
no  more ! 

YoM  tell  me  thai  in  qpitp  of  .all  tViic:  parade  of  sea  COast 

Bonaparte  has  neither  ships  nor  sailors  :  but  this  is  a  mis- 
take. He  has  not  ships  and  sailors  to  contest  the  empire 
of  the  seas  with  Great  Britain,  but  there  remains  quite 
sufficient  of  the  navies  of  France,  Spain,  Holland,  and 
Denmark,  for  these  short  excursions,  and  invasions.  Do 
you  think  too  that  Bonaparte  does  not  add  to  his  navy 
every  year  ?  Do  you  suppose,  with  all  Europe  at  his  feet, 
that  he  can  find  any  difficulty  in  obtaining  timber  ?  And 
that  money  will  not  procure  for  him  any  quantity  of  naval 
stores  he  may  want  ?  The  mere  machine,  the  empty  ship, 
he  can  build  as  well,  and  as  quickly  as  you  can  ;  and 
though  he  may  not  find  enough  of  practised  sailors  to  man 
large  lighting  fleets, — it  is  not  possible  to  conceive  that  he 
can  want  sailors  for  such  sort  of  purposes  as  I  have  stated. 
He  is  at  present  the  despotic  monarch  of  above  twenty 
thousand  miles  of  sea  coast,  and  yet  you  suppose  he  can- 
not procure  sailors  for  the  invasion  of  Ireland.  Believe, 
if  you  please,  that  such  a  fleet  met  at  sea  by  any  number 
of  our  ships  at  all  comparable  to  them  in  point  of  force, 
would  be  immediately  taken,  let  it  be  so ;  I  count  nothing 
upon  their  power  of  resistance,  only  upon  their  power  of 
escaping  unobserved.  If  experience  has  taught  us  any 
thing,  it  is  the  impossibility  of  perpetual  blockades.  The 
instances  are  innumerable  during  the  course  of  this  war, 
v^hexe  whole  fleets  have  sailed  in  and  out  of  harbour  in 
spite  of  every  vigilance  used  to  prevent  it.  I  shall  only 
mention  those  cases  where  Ireland  is  concerned.  In  De- 
cember, nye,  seven  ships  of  the  line,  and  ten  transports, 
reached  Bantry  Bay  from  Brest,  without  having  seen  ar> 


English  ship  in  their  passage.  It  blew  a  storm  when  tliey 
were  off  shore,  and  therefore  England  still  continues 
to  be  an  independent  kingdom.  You  will  observe,  that  at 
the  very  time  the  French  fleet  sailed  out  of  Brest  harbour, 
Admiral  Colpo3's  was  cruizing  off  there  with  a  powerful 
squadron,  and  stilJ,  from  the  particular  circumstances  of 
the  weather,  found  it  impossible  to  prevent  the  French 
from  coming  out.  During  the  time  that  Admiral  Colpoys 
was  cruising  off  Brest,  Admiral  Richery,  with  six  ships  of 
the  line,  passed  him  and  got  safe  into  the  harbour.  At 
the  very  moment  when  the  French  squadron  was  lying  in 
Bantry  Bay,  Lord  Bridport  with  his  fleet  was  locked  up  by 
a  foul  wind  in  the  Channel, and  for  several  dajs  could  not 
stir  to  the  assistance  of  Ireland.  Admiral  Colpoys,  totally 
unable  to  find  the  French  fleet,  came  home.  Lord  Brid- 
port, at  the  change  of  the  wind,  cruized  for  them  in  vain, 
and  they  got  safe  back  to  Brest,  without  having  seen  one 
single  one  of  these  floating  bulwarks,the  possession  of  which 
we  believe  will  enable  us  with  impunity  to  set  justice,  and 
common  sense  at  defiance.  Such  is  the  miserable,  and 
precarious  state  of  an  anemocracy,  of  a  people  who  pur: 
their  trust  in  hurricunes,  and  are  governed  by  wind.  In 
August  1798,  three  forty  gun  frigates  landed  1 100  men 
under  Humbert,  making  the  passage  from  Kochelle  to  Kil- 
l.ala  without  seeing  an  English  ship.  In  October  of  the 
same  year,  four  French  frigates  anchored  in  Killala  bay 
with  2000  troops,  and  though  they  did  not  land  their 
troops,  they  returned  to  France  in  safety.  In  the  same 
month,  a  line  of  battle  ship,  eight  stout  frigates  and  a  brig, 
all  full  of  troops  and  stores,  reached  the  coast  of  Ireland, 
and  were  fortunately  in  sight  of  land,  destroyed  after  an 
obstinate  engagement,  by  Sir  John  Warren. 

If  you  despise  the  little  troop  which  in  these  numerous 
experiments  did  make  good  its  landing,  take  with  you,  if 
you  please,  this  precis  of  its  exploits  :  eleven  hundred 
men,  commanded  by  a  soldier  raised  from  the  ranks,  put 
to  rout  a  select  army  of  six  thousand  men,  commanded  by 
General  Lake,  seized  their  ordnance,  ammunition,  and 
stores,  advanced  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  into  a  coun- 
try containing  an  armed  force  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  men,  and  at  last  surrendered  to  the  viceroy,  an 
experienced  general,  gravely  and  cautiously  advancing  at 
the  head  of  all  his  chivalry  and  of  an  immense  army  to  op- 
pose him.  You  must  excuse  these  details  about  Ireland, 
but  it  appears  to  me  to  be  of  all  gther  subjects  the  most 


51 

important*  If  we  conciliate  Ireland,  we  can  do  nothing 
amiss :  if  we  do  not,  we  can  do  nothing  well.  If  Ire- 
land w^s  friendly,  we  might  equally  set  at  defiance  the 
talents  of  Bonaparte  and  the  blunders  of  his  rival  Mr. 
Canning  ;  we  could  then  support  the  ruinous  and 
silly  bustle  of  useless  expeditions,  and  the  almost  incre- 
dible ignorance  of  our  commercial  orders  in  council. 
Let  the  present  administration  give  up  but  this  one  point, 
and  there  is  nothing  which  I  would  not  consent  to  grant 
them.  Mr.  Perceval  shall  have  full  liberty  to  insult  the 
t.omb  of  Mr,  Fox,  and  to  torment  every  eminent  Dissenter 
in  Great  Britain  ;  Lord  Camden  shall  have  large  boxes  of 
plumbs  ;  Mr.  Rose  receive  permission  to  prefix  to  his 
name  the  appellative  of  virtuous  ;  and  to  the  Viscount 
Castlereagh  a  round  sum  of  ready  money  shall  be  well, 
and  truly  paid  into  his  hand.  Lastly,  what  remains  to  Mr. 
George  Canning,  but  that  he  ride  up  and  down  Pall  Mall, 
glprious  upon  a  white  horse,  and  that  they  cry  out  before 
him,  thus  shall  it  be  done  to  the  statesman  who  hath  writ- 
ten "  The  Needy  Knife-Grinder,"  and  the  German  play* 
Adieu  only  for  the  present,  you  shall  soon  hear  from  me 
again,  it  is  a  subject  upon  whi.ch  I  cannot  long  be  silent. 


LETTER   VIIL 

Nothing  can  he  more  erroneous  than  to  suppose  that 
Ireland  is  not  bigger  than  the  Isle  of  Wight,  or  of  more 
consequence  than  Guernsey,  or  Jersey  ;  and  yet  I  am  al- 
most inclined  to  believe,  from  the  general  supineness 
which  prevails  here  respecting  the  dangerous  state  of  that 
country,  that  such  is  the  rank  which  it  holds  in  our  statis- 
tical  tables.  I  have  been  writing  to  you  a  great  deal  aboufc 
Ireland,  and  perhaps  it  may  be  of  some  use  to  state  to  you 
concisely  the  nature,  and  resources  of  the  country  which 
has  been  the  subject  of  our  long,  and  strange  correspon- 
dence. There  were  returned,  as  I  have  before  observed, 
to  the  hearth  tax,  in  1791,  701,102*   houses,  which  Mr. 


*  The  checks  to  population  were  very  trifling  from  the  rebellion.  It 
lasted  two  months  :  of  his  Majesty's  Irish  forces  there  perished  about 
1,600,  of  the  rebels  11,000  were  killed  in  the  field,  and  2,000  hanged  op 
exported :  400  loyal  persons  were  assasinated. 


55 

Newenham  shews  from  unquestionable  documents  to  be 
nearly  80,000  below  the  real  number  of  houses  in  that 
country.  There  are  27,457  square  English  miles  in  Ire- 
land,* and  more  than  five  millions  of  people.  ' 

By  the  last  survey  it  appears,  that  the  inhabited  houses 
in  England  and  Wales  amount  to  1,574,902,  and  the  popu- 
lation to  9,343,578,  which  gives  an  average  of  5^  to  each 
house,  in  a  country  where  the  density  of  population  is 
certainly  less  considerable  than  in  Ireland.  It  is  com- 
monly supposed  that  two-fifths  of  the  army  and  navy  are 
Irishmen,  at  periods  when  policical  disaffection  does  not 
avert  the  Catholics  from  the  service.  The  current  value 
of  Irish  exports  in  1807,  was  o£'9,3l4,&54.  17^.  Id.  a  state 
of  commerce  about  equal  to  the  commerce  of  England  in 
the  middle  of  the  reign  of  George  the  Second .  The  ton- 
nage of  ships  entered  inward  and  cleared  outward  in  the 
trade  of  Ireland,  in  1807,  amounted  to  1,567,430  tons. — 
The  quantity  of  home  spirits  exported  amounted  to  10, 
284  gaJlons  in  1796,  and  to  930,800  gallons  in  1804.  Of 
the  exports  which  I  have  stated,  provisions  amounted  to 
four  millions,  and  linen  to  about  four  millions  and  a  half. 
There  was  exported  from  Ireland,  upon  an  average  of  two 
years,  ending  in  January  1804,  591,274  barrels  of  barley, 
oats  and  wheat  j  and  by  weight  910,848  cwts.  of  flour, 
oatmeal,  barley,  oats,  and  wheat.  The  amount  of  butter 
exported  in  1804  from  Ireland,  was  worth  in  money, 
of  1,704,680  sterling.  The  importation  of  ale  and  beer, 
from  the  immense  manufactures  now  carrying  on  of  these 
articles,  was  diminished  to  3,209  barrels,  in  the  year  1804, 
from  111,920  barrels,  which  was  the  average  importation 
per  annum,  taken  from  three  years  ending  in  1792;  and  at 
present  there  is  an  export  trade  of  porter.  On  an  ave- 
rage of  three  years,  ending  March  1783,  there  were  im- 
ported into  Ireland,  of  cotton  wool  3,326  cwts.  of  cotton 
yarn  5,405  lbs.  ;  but  on  an  average  of  three  years,  ending 
January  1803,  there  were  imported,  of  the  first  article  13, 
159  cwts.  and  of  the  latter  628,406  lbs.  It  is  impossible  to 
conceive  any  manufacture  more  flourishing.  The  export 
of  linen  has  increased  in  Ireland  from  17,776,862  yards, 
the  average  in  1770,  to  43,534,971  yards,  the  amount  in 
1805.  The  tillage  of  Ireland  has  more  than  trebled  within 
the  last  twenty-one  years.  The  importation  of  coals  has 
increased  from  230,000  tons.,  in  i783,  to  417,030  in  1S04  ; 

•  In  England,  49,450. 


^  56 

of  tobacco,  from  3,459,861  lbs.  in  1783,  to  6,611,543,  in 
1804;  of  tea,   from  1,103,855  lbs.  in  1783,  to  3,358,256, 
in   1804  ;  of  sugar,  from  143,117  cwts.  in   1782,  to  309, 
076  in  1804.     Ireland  now  supports  a  funded  debt  of  above 
sixty-four  millions,  and  it  is   computed  that  more  than 
three  millions  of  money  are  annually  remitted  to  Irish  ab- 
sentees resident  in  this  country.      In  Mr.  Foster's  report, 
of  100  folio  pages,  presented  to  the  House  of  Commons 
in  the  year  1806,  the  total  expenditure  of  Ireland  is  stated 
at  ^9,760,013.     Ireland  has  increased  about  two-thirds  in 
its  population  within  twenty-five  years,  and  yet,  in  about 
the  same  space  of  time,  its  exports  of  beef,  bullocks,  cows, 
pork,  swine,  butter,  wheat,  barley,  and  oats,  collectively 
taken,  ^ve  doubled  ;  and  this  in  spite  of  two  years  fa- 
mine, and  the  presence  of  an  immense  army,  that  is  al- 
ways at  hand  to  guard  the  most  valuable  appanage  of  our 
empire  from  joining  our  most  inveterate  enemies.     Ire- 
lanti  has  the  greatest  possible  facilities  for  carrying  on  com- 
merce with  the  whole  of  Europe.     It  contains   within  a 
circuit  of  seven  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  sixty-six  secure 
harbours,  and   presents  a  western  frontier  against  Great 
Britain,  reaching   from  the  Firth  of  Clyde  north  to  the 
Bristol   Channel   south,    and  varying    in  distance  from 
twenty  to  one  hundred  miles  ;  so  that  the   subjugation  of 
Ireland  would  compel  us  to  guard  with  ships,  and  soldiers, 
a  new  line  of  coast,  certainly  amounting,  with  all  its  sinu- 
osities, to  more  than  seven  hundred  miles, — an  addition  of 
polemics,   in  our  present  state  of  hostility   with  all  the 
world,  which  must  highly  gratify  the  vigorists,  and  give 
them  an  ample  opportunity  of  displaying   that   foolish 
energy  upon  which  their  claims  to  distinction  are  founded. 
Such  is  the  country  which  the  Right  Reverend  the  Chan- 
cellor of   the  Exchequer  would   drive  into  the  arms  of 
France,  and  for  the  conciliation  of  which  we  are  requested 
to  wait,  as  if  it  were  one  of  those  sinecure  places  which 
were  given  to  Mr.  Perceval  snarling  at  the   breast,  and 
which  cannot  be  abolished  till  his  decease. 

How  sincerely,  and  fervently  have  I  often  wished,  that 
the  Emperor  of  the  French  had  thought  as  Mr.  Spender 
Perceval  does  upon  the  subject  of  government  ;  that  he 
had  entertained  doubts  and  scruples  i-.pon  the  proptiety  of 
admitting  the  Protestants  to  an  equality  of  rights  with 
the  Catholics,  and  that  he  had  left  in  the  middle  of  his  em^ 
pire  these  vigorous  seeds  of  hatred  and  disaffection  :  but 
the  world  was  never  yet  conquered  by  a  blockhead       One 


^f  the  very  first  Hieasures  we  saw  him  recurriog  to  was 
the  complete  establishment  of  religious  liberty  ;  if  his 
subjects  fought  and  paid  as  he  pleased,  he  allowed  them 
to  believe  as  they  pleased  :  the  moment  I  saw  this,  n-xy 
best  hopes  were  lost.  I  perceived  in  a  moment  the  kind  of 
man  we  had  to  do  with,  I  was  well  aware  of  the  miserable 
ignorance  and  follow  of  this  country  upon  the  subject  of 
toleration,  and  every  year  has  been  adding  to  the  success 
of  that  game  which  it  was  clear  he  had  the  will,  and  the 
ability  to  play  against  us. 

You  say  Bonaparte  is  not  in  earnest  upon  the  subject  of 
religion,  and  that  .his  is  the  cause  of  his  tolerant  spirit  ; 
but  is  it  possible  you  can  intend  to  give  us  such  dreadful 
and  such  unamiable  notions  of  religion  ?  Are  we  to  under- 
stand that  the  moment  a  man  is  sincere,  he  is  narrow 
minded  ;  that  persecution  is  the  child  of  belief ;  and  that 
a  desire  to  leave  all  men  in  the  quiet,  and  unpunished  ex- 
ercise of  their  own  creed  can  only  exist  in  the  mind  of  an 
infidel.  Thank  God,  I  know  many  men  whose  princi- 
ples are  as  firm,  as  they  are  expanded,  who  cling  tenaci- 
ously to  their  own  modification  of  the  christian  faith,  with- 
out the  slightest  disposition  to  force  that  modification  upon 
other  people.  If  Bonaparte  is  liberal  in  subjects  of  reli- 
gion because  he  has  no  religion,  is  this  a  reason  why  we 
Siould  be  illiberal  because  we  are  christians  ?  If  he  owes 
this  excellent  quality  to  a  vice,  is  that  any  reason  why  we 
may  not  owe  it  to  a  virtue  ?  Toleration  is  a  great  good, 
and  a'good  to  be  imitated,  let  it  come  from  whom  it  will. 
If  a  sceptic  is  tolerant,  it  only  shews  that  he  is  not  foolish 
in  practice  as  well  as  erroneous  in  theory.  If  a  religious 
man  is  tolerant,  it  evinces  that  he  is  religious  from  thought 
and  enquiry,  because  he  exhibits  in  his  conduct  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  and  important  consequences  of  a  religious 
mind,  an  inviolable  charity  to  all  the  honest  varieties  of 
human  opinion. 

Lord  Sidmouth,  and  all  the  anti-catholic  people,  little 
foresee  that  they  will  hereafter  be  the  spurt  of  the  anti- 
quarian ;  that  their  prophecies  of  ruin,  and  destruction, 
from  Catholic  emancipation  will  be  clapped  into  the  notes 
of  some  quaint  history,  and  be  matter  of  pleasantry  even 
to  the  sedulous  housewife,  and  the  rural  dean.  There  is 
always  a  copious  supply  of  Lord  Sidmouths  in  this  world  j 
nor  is  there  one  single  source  of  human  happiness,  against, 
which  they  have  not  uttered  the  most  lugubrious  predic- 
tions. Turnpike  roads,  navigable  cana!$j  iDocuiation^ 
H 


58 

hops,  tobacco,  the  reformation,  the  revolution,;— -there 
are  always  a  set  of  worthy,  and  moderately  gifted  men, 
who  bawl  out  death,  and  ruin  upon  every  valuable  change, 
which  the  varying  aspect  of  human  affairs  absolutely  and 
imperiously  requires.  I  have  often  thought  that  it  would 
be  extremely  useful  to  make  a  collection  of  the  hatred, 
and  abuse  that  all  those  changes  have  experienced,  which 
are  now  admitted  to  be  marked  improvements  in  our  condi- 
tion. Such  an  history  might  make  folly  a  little  more  mo- 
dest, and  suspicious  of  its  own  decisions. 

Ireland,  you  say,  since  the  Union  is  to  be  considered  as 
a  part  of  the  whole  kingdom ;  and  therefore,  however 
Catholics  may  predominate  in  that  particular  spot,  yet, 
taking  the  whole  empire  together,  they  are  to  be  consi- 
dered as  a  much  more  insignificant  quota  of  the  popula- 
tion. Consider  them  in  what  light  you  please,  as  part  of 
the  whole,  or  by  themselves,  or  in  what  manner  may  be 
most  consentaneous  to  the  devices  of  your  holy  mind — I 
say  in  a  very  few  words,  if  you  do  not  relieve  these  people 
from  the  civil  incapacities  to  which  they  are  exposed,  you 
will  lose  them  ;  or  you  must  employ  great  strength,  and 
much  treasure,  in  watching  over  them.  In  the  present 
state  of  the  world,  you  can  afford  to  do  neither  the  one,  or 
the  other.  Having  stated  this,  I  shall  leave  you  to  be 
ruined,  Puffendorf  in  hand  (as  Mr,  Secretary  Canning 
?ays)  and  to  lose  Ireland,  just  as  you  have  found  out  what 
proportion  the  aggrieved  people  should  bear  to  the  whole 
population,  before  their  calamities  meet  with  redress.  As 
for  your  parallel  cases,  I  am  no  more  afraid  of  deciding 
upon  them  than  I  am  upon  their  prototype.  If  ever  any 
one  heresy  should  so  far  spread  itself  over  the  principality 
of  Wales,  that  the  established  church  were  left  in  a  mino- 
rity of  one  to  four  ;  if  you  had  subjected  these  heretics  to 
very  severe  civil  privations  ;  if  the  consequence  of  such 
privations  were  an  universal  state  of  disaffection  among 
that  caseous  and  wrathful  people  ;  and  if  at  the  same  time 
you  were  at  war  with  all  the  world,  how  can  you  doubt 
lor  a  moment  that  I  would  instantly  restore  them  to  a 
state  of  the  most  complete  civil  liberty  ?  What  matters 
it  under  what  namei  you  put  the  same  case  ?  Common 
sense  is  not  changed  by  appellations.  1  have  said  how  I 
would  act  to  Ireland,  and  I  would  act  so  to  all  the  world. 

I  admit  that,  to  a  certain  degree,  the  government  will 
lose  the  affections  of  the  Orangemen  by  emancipating  the 
Catholics;  much  less,  however,   at  present,  than   three 


59 

years  past.  The  few  men  who  have  ill  treated  the  whole 
crew,  live  in  constant  terror  that  the  oppressed  people  \vill 
rise  upon  them  and  carry  the  ship  into  Brest : — they  begin 
to  find  that  it  is  a  ver}^  tiresome  thing  to  sleep  every  night 
with  cocked  pistols  under  their  pillows,  and  to  breakfast, 
dine,  and  sup,  with  drawn  hangers.  They  suspect  that 
the  privilege  of  beating,  and  kicking  the  rest  of  the  sai- 
lors is  hardly  worth  all  this  anxiety,  and  that  if  the  ship 
does  ever  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  disaffected,  all  the  cru-  . 
cities  which  they  have  experienced  will  be  thoroughly  re- 
membered and  amply  repaid.  To  a  short  period  of  dis- 
affection among  the  Orangemen,  I  confess  1  should  not 
much  object :  my  love  of  poetical  justice  does  carry  me  as 
far  as  that :  one  summer'^  whipping,  only  one  :  the 
thumb-screw  for  a  short  season  ;  a  little  light  eas}^  tortur- 
ing between  Lady-day  and  Michaelmas  ;  a  short  specimen 
of  Mr.  Perceval's  rigor.  I  have  malice  enough  to  ask  tiiia 
slight  atonement  for  the  groans  and  shrieks  of  the  poor 
Catholics,  unheard  by  any  human  tribunal,  but  registered 
by  the  Angel  of  God  against  their  protestant,  and  enlight- 
ened oppressors. 

Besides,  if  you  who  count  ten  so  often,  can  count  five, 
you  must  perceive  that  it  is  better  to  have  four  friends, 
and  one  enemy,  than  four  enemies  and  one  friend  ;  and 
the  more  violent  the  hatred  of  the  Orangemen,  the  more 
certain  the  reconciliation  of  the  Catholics.  The  disaffec- 
tion of  the  Orangemen  will  be  the  Irish  I'ainbow  ;  when  I 
see  it,  I  shall  be  sure  that  the  storm  is  over. 

If  those  incapacities  from  which  the  Catholics  ask  to  be 
relieved,  were  to  the  mass  of  them  only  a  mere  feeling  of 
pride  ;  and  if  the  question  were  respecting  the  attainment 
of  privileges  which  could  be  of  importance  only  to  the 
highest  of  the  sect,  I  should  still  say,  that  the  pride  of  the 
mass  was  very  naturally  wounded  by  the  degradation  of 
their  superiors.  Indignity  to  George  Rose  would  be  felt 
by  the  smallest  nummary  gentleman  in  the  King's  employ  ; 
and  Mr.  John  Bannister  could  not  be  indifferent  to  any 
thing  which  happened  to  Mr.  Canning.  But  the  truth  is, 
it  is  a  most  egregious  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  Catlio-. 
lies  are  contending  merely  for  the  fringes,  and  feathers  at 
their  chiefs.  I  will  give  you  a  list  in  my  next  Letter,  of 
those  privations  which  arc  represented  to  be  of  no  conse- 
quence to  any  body  but  Lord  Fingal,  and  some  twenty  or 
thirty  of  the  principal  persons  of  their  sect.  Tn  the  raear 
*:imep  adieu,  and  be  wise. 


m 


LJiiTTER  IX 


Dear  Abrahamy 

No  Catholic  can  be  Chief  Govenor,  o\  Governors  ot 
fins  Kingdom,  Chancellor,  or  Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal, 
Lord  High  Treasurer,  Chief  of  any  of  the  Courts  of  Jus- 
tice, Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  Puisne  Judge,  Judge 
in  the  Admiralty,  Master  of  the  Rolls,  Secretary  of  State, 
Keeper  of  the  Privy  Seal,  Vice-Treasurer,  or  his  Deputy  ; 
Teller,  or  Cashier  of  Exchequer,  Auditor  Genera],  Go- 
vernor or  Gustos  Rotulorum  of  Counties,  Chief  Govern- 
or's Secretary,    Privy  Counsellor,  King's  Counsel,  Ser- 
geant, Attorney,  or  Solicitor  General,  Master  in  Charr- 
eery,  Provost  or  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin  ;  Post- 
master-General, Master  and  Lieutenant  General  of  Ord- 
nance, Commander  in  Chief,  General  on  the  Statf,  Sherifl, 
Sub-Sheriff,  Mayor,    Bailiff,    Recorder,  Burgess,  or  any 
other  officer  in  a  City,  or  a  Corporation.     No  Catholic 
can  be  a  guardian  to  a  Protestant,  and  no  Priest  guardian 
at  all :  no  Catho-lic  can  be  a  Gamekeeper,  or  have  for  sale, 
or  otherwise,  any  arms,   or   warlike  stores  :  no  Catholic 
can  present  to  a  living,  unless  he  choose  to  turn  Jew  in 
order  to  obtain  that  privilege  ;  the  pecuniary  qualification 
of  Catholic  Jurors  is  made  higher  than  that  of  Protestants, 
and  no  relaxation  of  the  ancient  rigorous  code  is  permit- 
ted, unless  to  those  who  shall  take  an  oath  prescribed  by 
thirteen  and  fourteen  Geo.  IIL     Now  if  this  is  not  pick- 
ing the  plumbs  orut  of  the  pudding,  and  leaving  the  mere 
bdtter  to  the  Catholics,  I  know  not  what  is.     If  it  were 
merely  the  Privy  Council,  it  would  be  (I  allow)  nothing 
but  a  point  of  honour  for  which  the  mass  of  Catholics  were 
contending,  the  honour  of  being  chief-mourners  or  pall- 
"bearers  to  the  country  ;  bat  surely  no  man  will  contend 
that  every  Barrister  may  not  speculate  upon  the  possibility 
of  being  a  Puisne  Juage  ;  and  that  every   Shopkeeper, 
must  not  feel  himself  injured  by  his  exclusion  from  bo 
sough  offi'ees. 


61 

One  of  the  greatest  practical  evils  which  the  Catholics 
suffer  in  Ireland,  is  their  exclusion  from  the  offices  of 
Sheriff,  and  Deputy  Sheriff.  Nobody  who  is  unacquaint- 
ed with  Ireland  can  conceive  the  obstacles  which  this  op- 
poses to  the  fair  administration  of  justice.  The  formation 
of  Juries  is  now  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Protestants ; 
the  lives,  liberties,  and  properties  of  the  Catholics  in  the 
hands  of  the  Juries  :  and  this  is  the  arrangement  for  the 
administration  of  justice  in  a  country  where  religious  pre- 
judices are  inflamed  t©  the  greatest  degree  of  animosity. 
In  this  country,  if  a  man  is  a  foreigner,  if  he  sells  slip- 
pers and  sealing-wax,  and  artificial  flowers,  we  are  so  ten- 
der of  human  life,  that  we  take  care  half  the  number  of 
persons  who  are  to  decide  upon  his  fate  should  be  men  of 
similar  prejudices  and  feelings  with  himself:  but  a  poor 
Catholic  in  Ireland  may  be  tried  by  twelve  Percevals,  and 
.destroyed  (according  to  the  manner  of  that  gentleman)  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  with  all  the  insulting  forms  of 
Justice.  I  do  not  go  the  length  of  saying,  that  deliberate 
and  wilful  injustice  is  done.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the 
Orange  Deputy-Sheriff  thinks  it  would  be  a  most  unpar- 
donable breach  of  his  duty  if  he  did  not  summon  a  Pro- 
tectant pannel.  I  can  easily  believe  that  the  Prostestant 
pannel  may  conduct  themseles  very  conscientiously  in 
hanging  the  g-entlemen  of  the  crucifix  :  but  I  blame  the 
law  which  does  not  guard  the  Catholic  against  the  proba- 
ble tenor  of  those  feelings  which  must  unconsciously  in- 
fliience  the  judgments  of  mankind,  I  detest  that  state  of 
society  which  extends  unequal  degrees  of  protection  to 
different  creeds,  and  persuasions,  and  I  cannot  describe  to 
you  the  contempt  I  feel  for  a  man  who,  calling  himself  a 
statesman,  defends  a  system  which  fills  the  heart  of  every 
Irishman  with  treason,  and  makes  his  allegiance  prudence, 
not  choice. 

I  request  to  know  if  the  vestry  taxes  in  Ireland  are  a 
mere  matter  of  romantic  feeling,  which  can  affect  only 
the  Earl  of  Fingal.  In  a  parish  where  there  are  four  thou- 
sand Catholics  and  fifty  Protestants,  the  Protestants  may 
meet  together  in  a  vestry  meeting,  at  which  no  Catholic 
has  the  right  to  vote,  and  tax  all  the  lands  in  the  parish  Is. 
6d.  per  acre,  or  in  the  pound,  I  forget  which,  for  the 
repairs  of  the  church, — and  how  has  the  necessity  of  these 
repairs  been  ascertained  ?  A  Protestant  plumber  has  dis- 
covered that  it  wants  new  leading  ;  a  Protestant  carpen- 
jS^er  is  C!:>nvinced  the  tjmbers  are  not  sound,  and  a  glazier 


6^ 

vvho  hates  holy  \vatcr  (as  an  accoucheur  hates  celibacy) 
because  he  gets  nothing  by  it,  is  employed  to  put  in  new 
sashes. 

The  grand  juries  in  Ireland  are  the  great  scene  of  job- 
bing.    They  have  a  power  of  making  a  county  rate,  to  a 
considerable  extent  ;  for  roads,  bridges,  and  other  objects 
of  general  accommodation.     "  You  sutler  the  road  to  be 
brought  through  my  park,  and  I  will  have  the  bridge  con- 
structed in  a  situation  where  it  will  make  a  beautiful  ob- 
ject to  your  house.     You  do  my  job,  and  I  will  do  3  ours.'* 
These  are  the  sweet  and  interesting  subjects  which  occa- 
sionally occupy  milesian  gentlemen  while  they  are  attend- 
ant upon  this  grand  inquest  of  justice.     But  there  is  a  re- 
ligion it  seems,  even  in  jobs;  and  it  will  be  highly  gratify- 
ing to  Mr.  Perceval,  to  learn,  that  no  man  in  Ireland  who 
believes  in  seven  sacraments  can  carry  a  public  road,  or 
bridge,  one  yard  out  of  the  direction  most  beneficial  to 
the  public,   and  that  nobody  can  cheat  that  public  who 
does  not  expound  the  scriptures  in  the  purest,  and  most 
orthodox  manner.     This  will  give  pleasure  to  Mr.  Perce- 
vBii ;  but,  from  his  tmfairness  upon  these  topics,  I  appeal 
to  the  justice,  and  the  proper  feelings  of  Mr.  Huskisson. 
I  ask  him,  if  the   human   mind  can  experience  a  more 
dreadful  sensation,  than  to  see  its  own  jobs  refused,  and 
the  jobs   of  another  religion  perpetually  succeeding.— I 
ask  him  his  opinion  of  a  jobless  faith,   of  a  creed  which 
dooms  a  man  through  life  to  a  lean,  and  plunderless  inte- 
^^rity.     He  knows  that  human  nature  cannot,  and  will  not 
bear  it ;  and  if  he  were   to  paint  a  political  Tartarus,  it 
would  be  an  endless  series  of  snug  expectations,  and  cruel 
disappointments.     These  are  a  tew  of  many  dreadful  in\- 
^  conveniences  which  the  Catholics  of  all  ranks  suffer  from 
the  laws  by  which  they  are  at  present  oppressed.     Besides, 
look  at  human  nature  : — what  is  the  history  of  allprofessi- 
ons  ?  Joel  is  to  be  brought  up  to  the  bar  :  has  Mrs.  Plym- 
ley  the  slightest  doubt  pf  his  being  Chancellor  ?  Do  not 
bis  two  shrivelled  aunts  live  in  the  certainty  of  seeing  him 
in  that  situation,  and  of  cutting  out  with  their  own  hands 
his  equity  habiliments  r   And  I  could  name  a  certain  mini- 
ster of  the  gospel  who  does  not,  in  the  bottom  of  his  heart, 
,  much  differ  from  these  opinions.     Do  you  think  that  the 
fathers,  and  mothers  of  the  holy  Catholic  church  arc  not 
as  absurd  as  Protestants  papas,  and  mammas  ?  The  proba- 
bility I  admit  to  be,  in  each  particular  case,  that  the  sweet 
little  blockhead  will  in  fact  never  get  a  brief  :— but  I  will 


•o 

to 


rent'ure  to  say  there  is  not  a  parent  from  the  Giant's  Causes 
way  to  Bantry  Bay,  who  does  not  conceive  that  his  child 
is  the  unfortunate  victim  of  the  exclusion,  and  that  no- 
thing short  of  positive  law  could  prevent  his  own  dear  pre- 
eminent Paddy  from  rising  to  the  highest  honours  of  the 
State.  So  with  the  army,  and  Parliament,  in  fact,  few  are 
excluded ;  but,  in  imagination,  all ;  you  keep  twenty  or 
thirty  Catholics  out,  and  you  lose  the  affections  of  four 
millions  ;  and,  let  me  tell  you,  that  recent  circumstances 
have  by  no  means  tended  to  diminish  in  the  minds  of  men 
that  hope  of  elevation  beyond  their  own  rank  which  is  so 
congenial  to  our  nature  :  from  pleading  for  John  Roe  to 
taxing  John  Bull,  from  jesang  for  Mr.  Pitt,  and  writing  in 
the  Anti-Jacobin,  to  managing  the  affairs  of  Europe, — 
these  are  leaps  which  seem  to  justify  the  fondest  dreams  of 
mothers,  and  of  aunts. 

I  do  not  say  that  the  disabilities  to  which  the  Catholics 
are  exposed,  amount  to  such  intolerable  grievances,  that 
the  strength  and  industry  of  a  nation  are  overwhelmed  by 
them:  the  increasing  prosperity  of  Ireland  fully  demon- 
strates the  contrary.  But  I  repeat  again,  what  I  have 
often  stated  in  the  course  of  our  correspondence,  that 
your  laws  against  the  Catholics  are  exactly  in  that  state  in 
which  you  have  neither  the  benefits  of  rigor,  nor  of  liber- 
ality :  every  law  which  prevented  the  Catholic  from  gain- 
ing strength,  and  wealth,  is  repealed  ;  every  law  which- 
can  irritate  remains  :  if  you  were  determined  to  insult  the 
Catholics,  you  should  have  kept  them  weak  ;  if  )  ou  re- 
solved to  give  them  strength,  you  should  have  ceased  to 
insult  them  ;  at  present  your  conduct  is  pure  unadulte- 
rated folly. 

Lord  Hawkesbury  says,  we  heard  nothing  about  the. 
Catholics  till  we  began  to  mitigate  the  laws  against  them  ; 
■Vvhen  we  relieved  them  in  part  from  this  oppression,  they 
began  to  be  disaffected.  This  is  very  true  ;  but  it  proves 
Just  what  I  have  said,  that  you  have  either  done  too  much, 
or  too  little  ;  and  as  there  lives  not,  I  hope,  upon  earth, 
so  depraved  a  courtier  thac  he  would  load  the  Catholic 
with  their  ancient  chains,  what  absurdity  it  is  then  not  to 
render  their  dispositions  friendly,  vvhen  you  leave  their 
arms  and  legs  free. 

You  know,  and  many  Englishmen  kuov/,  what  passes  in 
China;  but  nobody  knows,  or  cares,  what  passes  in  Ire- 
land. At  the  beginning  of  the  present  reign,  no  Catholic; 
could  realize  nronertv,  or  carry  on  anv  business  ;  r.hp\ 


6*4. 

were  absolutely  annihilated,  and  had  no  more  ageTicy  in 
the  country  than  so  many   trees.     They  were  like  Lord 
Mulgrave's  eloquence,  and  Lord  Camden's  wit,  the  legis- 
lative bodies  did  not  know  oi  their  existence.     For  these 
twenty-five  years  last  past,  the  Catholics  have   been  en- 
gaged in  commerce  :  within  that  period  the  commerce  of 
Ireland  has  doubled : — there  are  four  Catholics  at  work 
for  one  Protestants,  and  eight  Catholics  at  work  for  one 
Episcopalian  ;  of  course,  the  proportion   which   Catholic 
wealth  bears  to  Protestant  wealth  is  every  year  altering 
rapidly  in  favour   of  the  Catholics.      I  have  already  told 
you  what  their  purchases  of  land  wej*e  the  last  year  :  since 
that  period,  I  have  been  at  some  pains  to  find  out  the  ac- 
tual state  of  the   Catholic  wealth:  it  is  impossible,   upon 
such  a  subject,  to  arrive  at  complete  accuracy ;  but  I  have 
good  reason  to  believe,  that  there  are  at  present  two  thou- 
sand Catholics  in  Ireland,  possessing  an  income  from  ;«^500 
upwards,  many  of  these  with  incomes  of  one,  two,  three, 
and  four  thousand,    and    some  amounting  to  fifteen  and 
.    twenty  thousand,  per  annum  : — and  this  is  the  kingdom^ 
and  these  the  people,  for  whose  conciliation  we  are  to  wait 
hcavfen  knows  when,  and  Lord  Hawkesbury  why.     As  for 
me,  I  never  think  of  the  situation  of  Ireland,  without  feel- 
ing the  same  necessity   for  immediate  interference,   as  I 
should  do  it  I  saw  blood  flowing  from  a  great  artery,   I 
rush  towards  it  with  the  instinctive  rapidity  of  a  man  de- 
sirous of  preventing  death,  and  have  no  other  feeling  but 
that  in  a  few  seconds  the  patient  may  be  no  more. 

I  could  not  help  smiling,  in  the  times  of  No  Popery,  to- 
witness  the  loyal  indignation  of  many  persons  at  the  at- 
tempt made  by  the  last  ministry,  to  do  something  for  the 
relief  of  Ireland.  The  general  cry  in  the  country  was, 
tliut  they  would  not  see  their  beloved  monarch  used  ill  in 
his  old  age,  and  that  they  would  stand  by  him  to  the  last 
drop  of  their  blood  :  I  respect  good  feelings,  however 
erroneous  be  the  occasions  on  which  they  display  them- 
selves ;  and  therefore  I  saw  in  all  this  as  much  to  admire, 
as  to  blame.  It  was  a  species  of  affection,  however,  which 
reminded  me  very  forcibly  of  the  attachment  displa3'ed  by 
the  servants  of  the  Russian  ambassador,  at  the  beginning; 
of  the  last  century !^  His  Excellency  happened  to  fall 
down  in  a  kind  of  apoplectic  fit,  v-fhen  he  Mas  paying  a 
morning  visit,  in  the  house  of  an  acquaintance.  The  con 
fusion  was  of  course  very  great,  and  messengers  were  dis- 
patched, in  every  direction,  to  find  a  surgeon,  who  upon 


m 

his  arrival  declared,  that  his  Excellency  must  be  immedi= 
ately  blooded,  and  i^repared  himself  forthwith  to  perform 
the  operation  the  barbarous  servants  of  the  embassy, 
who  were  there  in  great  numbers,  no  sooner  saw  the  sur- 
geon prepared  to  wound  the  arm  of  their  master  with  a 
sharp  shining  instrument,  than  they  drew  their  swords, 
put  themselves  in  an  attitude  of  defence,  and  swore  in 
pure  Sclavonic,  that  thev  would  murder  any  man  who  at- 
tempted to  do  him  the  slightest  injury  :  he  had  been  a  very 
good  master  to  them,  and  they  wou  d  not  desert  him  in  his 
misfortunes,  or  suffer  his  bloo  i  to  be  shed  while  he  was  off 
his  {juard,  and  incapable  of  defending  himself.  By 
good  fortune,  the  Secretar}'^  arrived  about  this  period  of 
the  dispute,  and  h  s  Excellency,  relieved  from  superfluous 
blood,  and  perilous  aiiection,  was,  after  much  difficulty, 
restored  to  life. 

There  is  an  argument  brought  forward  with  some  ap* 
pearance  of  plans  bility  in  the  House  of  Commons  which 
certainly  merit ,  an   answer  :  you  know  that  the  Catholics 
now  vote  tor  Members  of  Parliament  in  Ireland,  and   that 
they  out-number  the  Protestants  in  a  very  great  )roportion; 
if  you  allow  Cath:/lics  to  sit  in  Parliament,  religion  will 
be  found  to  influence  votes  more  than   property,  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  hundred   Irish  members   who  are  re- 
turned to  Parliament  will  be  Catholics. — Add  to  these  the 
Catholic  members  who  are  returned  to  England,  and  you 
w'\\i  have  a  phalanx  of  heretical  strength  which  every  mi- 
nister will  be  compelled  to  respect,  and  occasionally  to 
conciliate  by   concessions  incompatible  with  the  interests 
of  the  Protestant  church.     The  fact  is,  however,  that  you 
Are  at  this  moment,  subjected  to  every  danger  of  this  kind, 
virhich  you  can  ;>os:^ibly  apprehend  hereafter.     If  the  spi- 
ritual interests  of  the  voters  are  more  powerful  than  their 
temporal  interests,  they  can  bin  1  down  their  representa^ 
tivesto  support  any  measures  favourable  to  the  Catholic 
religion,  and  they  can  change  the   objects  of  their  choice 
till  they  have  found  Protestant  members  (as  they  easily 
may  do)  perfectly  obedient  to  their  wishes.      If  the  supe- 
rior possessions  of  the  Protestants    prevent  the  Catholics 
from  uniting  for  a  common  political  object,  then  the  dan- 
ger you  fear  cannot  exist  :   if  zeal,  on  the  contrary,  gets 
the  better  of  acres,  then  the  danger  at  present  exists,  from 
the  right  of  voting  already  given  to  the  Catholics,  and  it 
will  not  be  increased  by  adowing  them  to  sit  in  Parlia- 
ment.    There  are,  as  nearly  as  J  can  recollect,  thirty  seats^ 
I 


m 

in  Ireland  for  cities  and  counties  where  the  Protestants  ar6 
the  most  numerous,  and  where  the  members  returned  must 
of  course  be  Protestants.  In  the  other  seventy  represen- 
tations the  wccdth  of  the  Protestants  is  opposed  to  the 
number  of  the  Ca  holies  ;  and  if  all  the  seventy  members 
returned  were  of  the  Catholic  persuasion,  they  must  still 
plot  he  destruction  of  our  religion  in  the  midst  of  five 
hundred  and  eighty-eihgt  Protestants.  Such  terrors  would 
disgrace  a  cook- maid,  or  a  toothless  aunt, — when  they  fall 
from  the  lips  of  bearded,  and  senatorial  men,  they  are  nau- 
seous, antipriestaltic,  and  emetical. 

How  can  you  for  a  moment  doubt  of  the  rapid  effects 
which  would  be  produced  by   the  emanci,mtion  ? — In  the 
first  place,  to  my  certain    knowledge,  the  Catholics  have 
long  since  expressed  to  his  Majesty's  ministers  their  per- 
fect readiness  to  vest  in  his  Majesty,  either  with  the  consent 
of  the  Pope  or  without  it,  if  it  cannot  be  obtainsd,  thenomi- 
7iatio?i  of  the  Catholic  prelacy.     The  Catholic  prelacy  in 
Ireland  consists  of  twenty-six  bishops  and  the  warden  of 
Gal  vay,  a  dignitary  enjoying  Catholic  jurisdiction.     The 
number  of  Roman  Cathol  c  Priests  in  Ireland  exceeds  one 
thousand.     The  expences  of  his  peculiar  worship  are  to. 
a  substantial  farmer,  or  mechanic,   five  shillings  per  an- 
num ;  to  a  labourer  (where  he  is  not  entirely  excused)  one 
shilling  per  annum  :   this  includes  the  contribution  of  the 
whole  fadiily,  and  for  this  the  priest  is  bound  to  attend 
them  when  sick,  and  to  confess  them  when  they  apply  to 
him  :  he  is  also  to  keep  hiS  chapel  in  order,  to  celebrate 
divine  service,  and  to  preach  on  Sundays  and  holidays. — 
In  the  northern  district  a  priest  gains  from  o£30  to  £50 ; 
in  the  other  parts  of  Ireland  from  J60  to  £90  per  ann. 
The  best  paid  Catholic  bishops  receive  about  J 400  per 
ann. ;  the  others  from  J'300  to  ^350.     My  plan  is  very 
simrle;  I  would  have  three  hundred  Catholic  parishes  at 
J^lbo  per  ann.  three  hundred  at  =^'200  ;  er  ann.  and  four 
hundred  at  J'300  per  ann. ;  this,  for  the  whole  thousand 
parishes,  would  amount  to  J"  190,000.     To  the  prelacy  I 
would   allot  ^"20,000   in  unequal    proportions  irom  one 
thousand  to  JSOO  :  and  I  would  appropriate  J'40,000  more 
for  the  support  of  Catholic  schools,  and  the  repairs  of  Ca- 
tholic churches  ;  the   whole  amount  of    which  sums  is 
J'250,000,  about  the  expence  of  three  days  of  one  of  our 
genuine,  good   English,  Just  and  necessary  wars.      The 
clergy  should  all  receive  their  salaries  at  the  bank  of  Ire- 
land, and  I  would  place  the  whole  patronage  in  the  hands 


&7 

of  the  crown.  Now  I  appeal  to  any  human  being,  exeep.t 
Spencer  Perceval,  Esq.  of  the  •  arish  of  Hampstead,  what 
the  disaffection  of  a  clergy  would  amount  to,  gaping  after 
this  graduated  bounty  of  the  crown,  and  whether  Ignatius 
Loyola  himself,  if  he  were  a  living  blockhead  instead  of  a 
dead  saint,  could  withstand  the  temptation  of  bouncing 
from  ci^lOO  a  }ear  in  Sligo,  to  ci^SOO  in  Tipperary. — 
This  is  the  miserable  sum  of  money  for  which  the  mer- 
chants, and  land-owners,  and  nobility  of  England  are  ex- 
posing themselves  to  the  tremendous  peril  of  losing  he- 
land.  The  sinecure  places  of  the  Roses,  and  the  Per- 
cevals,  and  the  "  dear  and  near  relations,"  put  up  to 
auction  at  thirty  years  purchase,  would  almost  amount  to 
the  money. 

I  admit  that  nothing  can  be  more  reasonable  than  to  ex- 
pect that  a  Catholic  Priest  should  starve  to  death,  gen- 
teelly, and  pleasantly,  for  the  good  of  the  Protestant  re- 
ligion ;  but  is  It  equally  reasonable  to  ex;iect  that  he 
should  do  so  for  Protestant  pews,  and  Protestant  brick, 
9nd  mortar  ?  On  an  Irish  sabbath,  the  bell  of  a  neat  pa- 
rish church  often  summons  to  church  only  the  parson,  and 
an  occasionally  conforming  clerk  ;  while,  two  hundred 
yards  off,  a  thousand  Catholics  are  huddled  together  in  a 
miserable  hovel,  and  pelted  by  all  the  storms  of  heaven. 
Can  any  thing  be  more  distressing  than  to  see  a  venerable 
mau  pouring  forth  sublime  truths  in  tattered  breeches,  and 
dependmg  for  his  food  upon  the  little  offai  he  gets  from  his 
parishioners.  I  venerate  an  human  being  who  starves  for 
his  principles  let  them  be  what  they  may,  but  starving  for 
any  thing  is  not  at  all  to  the  taste  of  the  honourable  llagel- 
lants  ;  strict  principles,  and  good  pay  is  the  motco  of  Mr. 
Perceval  :  the  one  he  keens  in  great  measure  for  the  faults 
of  his  enemies,  the  other  for  himself. 

There  are  parishes  in  Connaught  in  which  a  Protestant 
was  never  settled  nor  even  seen  :  in  that  province,  ia 
Munster,  and  in  parts  of  Leinstsr,  the  entire  peasantry  for 
isixty  miles  are  Carbolics;  in  these  tracts,  the  churches 
are  frequently  shut  for  want  of  a  congregation,  or  opened 
to  an  assemblage  of  from  six,  to  twenty  persons.  Of 
what  Protestants  there  are  in  Ireland,  the  greatest  part 
are  gathered  together  in  Ulster,  or  they  live  in  towns.  In 
the  country  of  the  other  three  provinces,  the  Catholics  see 
no  other  religion  but  their  own,  and  are  at  the  least  as  fif- 
teen to  one  Protestant.  In  the  diocese  of  Tuam  they  are 
as  sixty  to  one  ;  in  the  parish  of  St,  MuHins,  diocese  o|" 


68 

Leghiin,  the>re  are  four  thousand  Catholics  and  one  Pro- 
testant ;  in  the  town  of  Grasgenamana  in  the  county  of 
Kilkenny,  there  are  between  four  hundred  and  five  hun- 
dred Ci'tholic  houses,  and  three  Protestant  houses.  In  the 
parish  of  Allen,  county  Kildare,  there  is  ro  Protestant, 
though  it  is  very  populous.  In  the  parish  of  Arlesin, 
Queen's  County,  the  proportion  is  one  hundred  to  one.— 
In  thewhcle  county  of  Kilkenny,  by  actual  enumeration, 
it  is  seventeen  to  one  :  in  the  diocese  of  Kilmacduagh,  in 
the  province  of  Connaught,  fifty-two  to  one,  by  ditto. — 
These  i  give  you  as  a  few  specimens  of  the  ;  resen:  state 
of  Ireland  ; — and  yet  there  are  men  imi  udent  and  igno* 
rant  enough  to  co  tend  that  such  evils  require  no  remedy, 
and  that  mild  family  man  who  dwelleth  in  Hampstead  can 
find  none  but  the  cautery  and  the  knife, 


omne  per  ignem     - 

Excoqu'itur  vitium. 

I  cannot  describe  the  horror,  and  disgust  which  I  felt  at 
hearing  Mr.  Perceval  call  upon  the  then  ministry  for  mea^ 
sures  of  vigor  in  Ireland,     if  I  l.ved  at  Ham  stead  upon 
stewed   meats  and  claret;  if   i   \ialked   to  church  every 
Sunday  before  eleven  young  gentlemen  of  my  own  beget- 
ting,    with   their  faces  washed   and   their  hair  pleasingly 
combed ;  if    the    Almigbty    had  blessed   me    with    every 
earthly  comfort,  ho-,    awfully  would  I  pane  before  I  sent 
forth  the  fiame  and  the  sword  over  the  cabins  of  the  poor, 
brave,  generous,  open  hearted  peasants  of  Ireland.     Hov\^ 
easy  it  is  to  shed  human  blood— how  easy  it  is  to  persuade 
ourselves  that  it  is  our  duty  to  do  so,  and  that  the  decision 
has  cost  us  a  severe  struggle — how  much  -n  all  ages  have 
xvounds,  and  shrieks  and  tears  been  the  cheap  and  vu'gar 
resources  of  the  rulers  of  mankind— how  difficult,  and 
how  noble  it  is  to   govern  in  kindness,   and  to  found  an 
Empire  upon  the  everlasting  basis  of  justice  and  affection  ; 
but  what  do  men   call  vigour  ?   to  let  loose  Hussars,  and 
to  bring  up  artillery,  to  govern  with  lighted  matches,  and 
to  cut,  and  push,  and  prime— I  call  this,  not  vigour,  but 
the  sloth  of  cruelly  and  ignorance.     The  vigour  I  love  con- 
sists in  finding  out  wherein  subjects  are  aggrieved,  in  re- 
jieving  them,  in  studying  the  temper,  and  genius  ol  a  peo- 
ple, in  consulting  their  prejudices,  in  selecting  proper  per- 
sons to  lead,  and  manage  them,  in  the  laborious,  watchful 
?ind  difficult  task  of  increasing  public  happiness  by  allay- 


\  69 

ing  each  particular  discontent.  In  this  way  Hoche  paci- 
fied La  Vendee — and  in  this  way  only  will  IreJand  ever  be 
subdued — But  this  in  the  eyes  of  Mr.  Perceval  is  imbe- 
cility and  meanness — Houses  are  not  broken  open — women 
are  not  insulted,  the  people  seem  all  to  be  bappy — they 
are  not  rode  over  by  horses,  and  cut  by  whips.  Do  you 
ckli  this  vigour  ? — Is  this  government  ? 


LETTER  X.  AND  LAST. 


You  must  observe  that  all  I  have  said  of  the  effects 
which  Avill  be  produced  by  giving  salaries  to  the  Catholic 
Clergy,  only  proceeds  upon  the  supposition  that  the  eman- 
cipation of  the  laity  is  effected  : — without  that  I  am  sure 
there  is  not  a  clergyman  in  Ii-eland  who  would  receive  a 
shilling  from  Government  ;  he  could  not  do  so,  without 
an  entire  loss  of  credit  among  the  members  of  his  own 
persuasion. 

What  you  say  of  the  moderation  of  the  Irish  Protestant 
clergy   in  collecting  tithes,   is,  I  believe,  strictly  true. — 
Instead  of  collecting  what  the  law  enables  them  to  collect, 
I  believe  they  seldom,  or  ever  collect  more  than  two-thirds ; 
and  I  entirely  agree  with  you,  that  the  abolition  of  agist- 
ment  tithe  in  Ireland  by  a  vote  of  the  Irish  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  without  any  remuneration  to  the  church,  was 
a  most  scandalous  andjacobinical  measure.  I  do  not  blame 
the  Irisi:  clergy  ;  but  I  submit  to  your  common  sense,  if 
it  is  possible  to  explain  to  an  Irish  Catholic  peasant,  upoa 
what  principle  of  justice,  or  common  sense,  he  is  to  pay 
every  tenth  potatoe  in  his  little  garden  to  a  clergyman  in 
whose  religion  nobody   believes   for  twenty  m  les  around 
him,  and  who  has  nothing  to  preach  to  but  bare  walls.     It 
is  true,  if  the  tithes  are  bought  up,  the  cottager  must  pay 
more  rent  to  his  landlord  ;  but  the  same  thing  done  in  the 
shape  of  rent,  is  less  odious  than  when  it  is  done  in  the 
shape  of  tithe  :  I  do  not  want  to  take  a  shilling  out  of  the 
pockets  of  the  clergy,  but  to  leave  the  substance  of  things, 
and  to  change  their  names.     I  cannot   see  the  slightest 
T«?ason  why  the  Irish  labourer  is  to  be  relieved  from  the 


real  onus,  or  from  any  thing  else  but  the  name  of  tithe» 
At  present,  he  rents  only  nine-tenthvS  of  the  produce  of  the 
land,  which  is  all  thai  belongs  to  the  owner  ;  this  he  has  at 
the  market  price  ;  if  the  land  owner  purchases  the  other 
tenth  of  the  church,  of  course  he  has  a  right  to  make  a  cor- 
respondent advance  upon  his  tenant. 

I  very  much  doubt,  if  you  were  to  lay  open  all  civil  offi- 
ces to  the  Catholics  and.to  grant  salaries  to  their  clergy, 
in  the  manner  1  have  stated,  if  the  Catholic  Laity  would 
give  themselves  much  tr*  ubie  about  the  advance  of  tl  eir 
church  ;  for  they  would  pay  the  same  tithes  under  one 
system,  that  they  do  under  another.  Ifyu  were  to  bring 
the  Catholics  into  ';he  day-light  of  the  world,  to  the  high 
situations  of  the  army,  the  navy,  and  the  bar,  numbers  of 
them  would  come  over  to  the  established  church,  and  do 
ns  other  people  do  :  instead  of  tb.it,  you  set  a  mark  of  in- 
famy upon  them,  rouse  every  passion  of  our  nature  in  fa- 
vour of  their  creed,  and  then  wonder  that  men  are  blind 
to  the  follies  of  the  Catholic  religion.  There  are  hardly 
any  instances  of  old,  and  rich  families  among  the  Protes- 
tant Dissenters:  when  a  man  keeps  a  coach,  and  lives  in 
good  company,  he  comes  to  church,  and  gets  ashamed  of 
the  meeting  house  ;  if  this  is  not  the  case  with  the  father, 
it  is  almost  always  the  case  with  the  son.  These  things 
would  never  be  so,  if  the  dissenters  were,  in  practice,  as 
much  excluded  from  aU  the  concerns  of  civil  life,  as  the 
Catholics  are.  If  a  rich  young  Catholic  were  in  Parlia- 
ment, he  would  belong  to  White*s  and  to  Brooks  s,  would 
3ieep  race-horses,  would  walk  up  and  down  Pall-Mall,  be 
exonerated  of  his  ready  mono}'  and  his  constitution,  be- 
come as  totally  devoid  of  morality,  honesty,  knowledge, 
and  civility,  as  Protestant  loungers  in  Pall-Mall,  and  re- 
turn home  with  a  supreme  contempt  for  Father  O'Leary, 
and  Father  O'Cailaghan.  I  am  astonished  at  the  madness 
of  the  Catholic  clergy,  in  not  perceiving  that  Catholic 
emancipation  is  Catiiolic  infidelity  ;  that  to  entangle  their 
people  in  the  intrigues  of  a  Protestant  Parliament,  and  a 
Protestant  Court,  is  to  insure  the  loss  of  every  man  O'f 
fashion,  and  consequence,  in  their  community.  The  true 
receipt  for  preserving  their  religion,  is  Mr.  Perceval's  re- 
ceipt for  destroying  it :  it  is,  to  deprive  ever}^  rich  Catho- 
lic of  all  the  objects  of  secular  ambition,  to  separate  him 
from  the  Protestant,  and  to  shut  him  up  'n\  his  castle  with 
■Driests  and  relics. 


71 

We  are  told,  in  answer  to  all  oar  arguments,  that  this  \3 
not  a  fit  period, — that  a  period  of  universal  war  is  not  the 
proper  time  for  dangerous  innovations  in  the  constitution: 
this  is  as  much  as  to  say,  that  the  worst  time  for  making 
friends  is  the  period  when  yon  have  made  many  enemies  ; 
that  it  is  the  greatest  of  all  errors  to  stop  when  you  are 
breathless,  and  to  lie  down  when  you  are  fatigued.  Of 
one  thing  I  am  quite  certain  :  if  the  safety  of  Europe  is 
once  completely  restoied,  the  Catholics  may  for  ever  bid 
adieu  to  the  slightes;  probability  of  effecting  their  object. 
Such  men  as  hang  about  a  Court,  not  only  are  deaf  to  the 
suggestions  of  mere  justice,  but  they  despise  justice  ; 
they  detest  the  word  7'ight  ;  the  only  word  which  rou- 
ses them  is  peril ;  where  they  can  oppress  with  impu- 
nity, they  oppress  for  ever^  and  call  it  loyalty,  and  wis- 
dom. 

lam  90  far  from  conceiving  the  legitimate  strength  of 
thecr  wn  would  be  diminished  by  these  abolitions  of  civil 
inca;  acities  in  consequence  of  religious  opinions,  that 
my  only  objection  t  >  the  increase  of  rel.gious  freedom  is, 
that  it  would  operate  as  a  diminution  of  political  iree- 
doui :  the  po  er  of  the  crown  is  so  overbearing  at  this 
period,  that  almost  the  only  steady  opposers  of  its  fatal  in- 
fluence, are  men  disgusted  by  religious  intolerance.  Our 
establj  hments  are  so  enormous,  and  so  utterly  dispvopor- 
tioned  to  our  population  that  every  second  or  third  man 
you  meet  in  society  gains  something  from  the  public  :  my 
brother  the  com:.iissio:;er — my  nephew  the  police  justice — - 
purveyor  of  small  beer  to  the  army  in  Ireland — clerk  of 
the  mouth — yeoman  to  the  left  hand — these  are  the  obsta- 
cles which  common  sense  and  just'ce  have  now  to  over- 
come :  Add  to  this  that  the  King,  old,  and  infirm,  excites 
a  principle  of  very  amiable  generosity  in  his  favour  ;  that 
he  has  led  a  good,  moral,  and  religious  life,  equally  re- 
moved from  profligacy,  and  methodistical  hypocrisy  : 
that  he  has  been  a  good  husband,  a  good  father,  and  a 
good  master  ;  that  he  dresses  plain,  loves  hunting  and 
farming,  bates  the  Fret.ch,  and  is  in  all  his  opinions  and 
habits,  quite  Enp  lish  : — these  feelings  are  heightened  by 
the  present  situation  of  the  world,  and  the  yet  unexploded 
clamour  of  Jacobinism.  In  short,  from  the  various  sour- 
ces of  interest,  personal  regard,  and  national  taste,  sucli 
a  tempest  of  loyalty  has  set  in  upon  the  people,  that  the 
forty-seventh  proposition  in  Euclid  might  now  be  voteci 
down,  with  as  much  ease  as  any  proposition  in  politics  y 


and  therefore,  if  Lord  Hawkesbury  hates  the  absttact 
truths  of  science,  as  much  as  he  hates  concrete  truth  in 
human  affairs,  now  is  his  time  for  getting  rid  of  the  mul- 
tipUcation  table,  and  passing  a  vote  of  censure  upon  the 
pretensions  of  the  hypoiheyieuse.  Such  is  the  history  of 
English  parties  at  this  moment:  you  cannot  seriously 
suppose,  that  the  people  care  for  such  men  as  Lord 
Hawkesbury,  Mr.  Canning,  and  Mr.  Perceval,  on  their 
own  account  ;  you  cannot  really  believe  then  to  be  so  de- 
graded as  to  look  to  their  safety  from  a  man  who  propo- 
ses to  subdue  Europe  by  keeping  it  without  Jesuit's 
Bark.  The  people  at  present,  have  one  passion,  and  but 
one 

A  Jove pr'mcipiumj  Jovis  omnia  plena. 

They  care  no  more  for  the  ministers  I  have  mentioned  than 
they  do  for  those  sturdy  royalists  who  for  ^60  per  annum 
stand  behind  his  Majesty's  carriage  arrayed  in  scarlet,  and 
in  gold.  If  the  present  ministers  opposed  the  Court  in- 
stead of  flattering  it,  they  would  not  command  twenty 
votes. 

Do  not  imagine  by  these  observations,  that  I  am  not 
loyal :  without  joining  in  the  common  cant  of  the  best  of 
kings,  I  respect  the  King  most  sincerely  as  a  good  n^an. 
His  religion  is  better  than  the  religion  of  Mr.   Perceval, 
his  old  morality  very  superior  to  the  old  morality  of  Mr. 
Canning,  and  I  am   quite  certain  he  has  a  better  under- 
standing than  both  of  them  put  together.     Loyalty,  within 
the  bounds  of  reason,  and  moderation,  is  one  of  the  great 
instruments  of  English   happiness ;  but  the   love  of  the 
King  may  easily  become  more  strong  than  the  love  of  the 
kingdom,  and  we  may  lose  sight  of  the  public  welfare  in 
our  exaggerated   admiration  of  him  who  is  appointed  lo 
reign  only  for  its  promotion,  and  support.     I  detest  Ja- 
cobinism, and  if  I  am  doomed  to  be  a  slave  at  all,  I  would 
rather  be  the  slave  of  a  King,  than  a  cobler.     God  save 
the  King,  you  say,  warms  your  heart  like  the  sound  of  a 
trumpet.     I  cannot  make  use  of  so   violent  a  metaphor  ; 
but  I  am  delighted  to  hear  it,  when  it  is  the  cry  of  genuine 
affection  ;  I  am  delighted  to  hear  it,  when  they  hail  not 
only  the  individual  man,  but.  the  outward  and  living  sign 
of  all   English  blessings.     These  are  noble  feelings,  and 
the  heart  of  every  good  man  must  go  with  them  ;  but  God 
save  the  King,  in  these  times,  too  often  means,  God  save 


7S 

aay  pension  and  my  place,  God  give  ray  sisters  an  aiiovv- 
ance  out  of  the  pvivy  purse,  make  me  clerk  of  the  irons, 
let  me  survey  the  meltings,  let  me  live  upon  the  fruits  of 
other  men's  industry,  and  fatten  upon  the  plunder  of  the 
public  ! 

What  is  it  possible  to  say  to  si^ch  a  man  as  the  gentle- 
man of  Hampstead.  who  really  believes  it  feasible  to  con- 
vert the  four  million  vrsh  Catholics  to  theProcestant  reli- 
gion, and  consider*  this  as  the  best  ren-edy  for  the  dis- 
turbed state  of  Ireland.  It  is  not  fxissible  to  ans  er  such 
a  man  with  arguments  ;  we  mu-t  come  out  against  hini 
with  beads,  and  a  cowl,  and  [ush  him  ;nto  a  hermitage- 
It  is  really  such  trash,  that  it  is  an  abuse  ff  the  privilege 
of  reasonmg  to  reply  to  it.  Such  a  projec  is  well  wo'thy 
the  statesman  who  would  bring  the  French  to  reason  by 
keening  them  without  riiubarb,  and  exhibit  to  mankind  the 
awful  spectacle  of  a  natfon  deprived  of  neutral  salts. — 
This  is  not  the  dream  of  a  wild  apothecary  indulging  in 
own  opium  ;  this  is  not  the  distempered  fancy  of  a  pounder 
of  drugs,  delirious  from  smallness  of  profits  ;  but  it  is  the 
sober,  deliberate,  and  systematic  scheme  of  a  man  to  whom 
the  public  safety  is  entrusted,  and  whose  appointment 
is  considered  by  many  as  a  masterpiece  of  political  saga- 
city. What  a  sublime  thought,  that  no  purge  can  now  be 
taken  between  the  Weser  and  the  Garonne  ;  that  the  bust- 
ling pestle  is  still,  the  canorous  mortar  mute,  and  the  bow- 
els of  mankind  locked  up  for  fourteen  degrees  of  latitude. 
When,  I  should  be  curious  to  know,  were  all  the  powers 
of  crudity,  and  flatulence  fully  explained  i:o  his  Majesty's 
ministers  ''  At  what  period  was  this  great  plan  of  conquest 
constipation  fully  developed  ?  In  whose  mind  v  as  the  idea 
of  destroying  the  pride,  and  the  plaisters  of  France  first 
engendered  ?  Without  castor-oil,  they  might  for  some 
months,  to  be  sure,  have  carried  on  a  lingering  war  ;  but 
can  they  do  without  bark  ?  Will  the  people  live  under  a 
government  where  antimonial  powders  cannot  be  procur- 
ed ?  Will  they  bear  the  loss  of  mercury  ?  "  There's  tlue 
rub."  Depend  upon  it,  the  absence  of  the  materia  medi- 
ca  will  soon  bring  them  to  their  senses,  and  the  cry  of 
Bourbon  and  Z-o/kj)  burst  forth  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Medi- 
terranean. 

You  ask  me.foA-any  precedent  in  our  history,  wheie  the 
oath  of  supremacy  has  been  dispensed  with.  It  was  dis- 
pensed with  to  the  Catholics  of  Canada  in  m-4.  They 
are  only  required  to  take  a  simple  oath  of  allegiance.  Thr» 
K 


m^ 


74 

same,  I  believe,  was  the  case  in  Corsica.  The  reason  of 
such  exemption  was  obvious,  you  cou^d  not  possibly  have 
retained  either  of  these  countries  without  it :  And  what 
did  it  signify  whether  you  retained  them  or  not  ?  in  cases 
where  you  might  have  been  foolish  without  peril,  vou  were 
wise  ;  when  nonsense  and  bigotry  threaten  you  with  de- 
struction, it  is  impossible  to  bring  you  back  to  the  alpha- 
bet of  justice  and  common  sense  :  if  men  are  to  be  fools, 
I  would  rather  they  were  fools  in  little  matters,  tha;i  in 
great  ;  dullness  turned  up  with  temerity,  is  a  livery  all  the 
worse  for  the  facings  ;  and  .he  most  tremendous  of  all 
things  is  the  magnanimity  of  a  dunce. 

It  is  not  by  any  means  necessar-  ,  as  you  contend,  to  re- 
peal the  test  act  if  you  give  relief  to  the  Catholic  ;  what 
the  Catholics  ask  for,  is  to  be  put  on  a  footing  with  the 
Protestant  Dissenters,  which  would  be  done  by  repealng 
that  part  of  the  law  which  compels  them  to  take  the  oath 
of  supremacy,  and  to  make  the  declarati*  n  against  tran- 
substantiiition  :  they  would  then  come  into  Parliament,  as 
all  other  Dissenters  areallowed  to  do.  and  the  penal  laws  o 
which  they  were  ex.;  osed  for  taking  office  would  be  sus- 
pended every  year,  as  they  have  been  for  this  half  century 
past  towards  Protestant  Dissenters.  Perhaps,  after  all, 
this  is  the  best  method — to  continue  the  persecuting  law, 
and  to  sus]iend  it  every  year — a  method  which,  while  it 
effectually  destroys  the  persecution  itself,  leaves  to  the 
great  mass  of  mankind  the  exquisite  gratification  of  sup- 
posing that  they  are  enjoying  some  advantage  frem  which 
a  particular  class  of  tiieir  fellow  creatures  are  excluded. — 
We  manage  the  corporation,  and  test  act  at  present  much 
in  the  same  manner  as  if  we  were  to  persuade  parish  boys 
who  had  been  in  the  habit  of  beating  an  ass,  to  spare 
the  animal,  and  beat  the  skin  of  an  ass  stuffed  with 
straw  ;  this  would  preserve  the  semblance  of  tormenting, 
without  the  reality,  and  keep  boy,  and  beast  in  good  hu- 
mour. 

Plow  can  you  imagine  that  a  provision  for  the  Catholic 
Clergy  affects  the  5th  article  of  tlie  Union  ?  Surely  I  am 
preserving  tke  Protestant  Church  in  Ireland  if  I  put  it  in 
a  better  condition  than  that  in  which  it  now  is.  A  tithe 
proctor  in  Ireland  collects  his  tithes  with  a  blunderbuss, 
and  carries  his  tenth  haycock  by  storm,  sword  in  hand  : 
to  give  him  equal  value  in  a  more  pacific  shape,  cannot,  I 
should  imagine,  be  considered  as  injurious  to  the  church 
of  Ireland  :  and  what  right  has  that  church  to  complain, 


75 

if  Parliament  chooses  to  fix  upon  the  empire  the  burthen 
of  supporting  a  double  ecclesiastical  establishment  ?  Are 
the  revenues  of  the  Irish  Protestant  Clergy  in  the  slight- 
est degree  injured  by  such  provision  ?  On  the  contrary,  is 
it  possible  to  confer  a  more  serious  benefit  upon  that 
church,  than  by  quieting,  and  contenting  those  who  are 
at  work  for  its  destruction  ? 

It  is  impossible  to  think  of  the  affairs  of  Ireland  without 
being  forcibly  struck  with  the  parallel  of  Hungary.  Of 
her  seven  millions  of  inhabitants,  one  half  were  Protes- 
tants, Calvmists  and  Lutherans,  many  of  the  Greek 
Church,  and  many  Jews  :  such  was  the  state  of  their  reli- 
gious dissensions,  that  Mahomet  had  often  been  called  in 
to  the  aid  ot  Calvin,  and  the  crescent  often  glittered  oni 
the  walls  of  Buda  and  of  Presburg.  At  last,  in  1791,  dur- 
ing the  most  violent  crisis  of  disturbance,  a  diet  was  called, 
and  by  a  great  majority  of  voices  a  decree  was  passed, 
which  secured  to  all  the  contending  sects  the  ful'est  and 
freest  exercise  of  religious  worship,  and  education  ;  or- 
dained (let  it  be  heard  in  Hampstead)  that  churches  and 
chapels  should  be  erected  for  all  on  the  most  perfectly 
equal  terms, that  the  Protestants  of  both  confessions  should 
depend  upon  their  spiritual  superiors  alone,  liberated  them 
from  swearing  by  the  usual  oath,  "  the  hOly  Virgin  Mary, 
the  saints,  and  chosen  of  God  ;"  and  then,  the  decree 
adds,  "  th?Lt  public  offices y  and  honours y  high  or  loxs),  great 
cr  small,  shall  be  given  to  natural  born  Hungarians  tvho 
deserve  xvell  of  their  country,  and  possess  the  other  qualifica^ 
tionSy  let  their  religion  be  what  it  may.''''  Such  was  the  lirie 
of  policy  pursued  in  a  diet  consisting  of  four  hundred 
members,  in  a  state  whose  form  of  government  approaches 
uearer  to  our  own,  than  any  other,  having  a  Koma^^.  Ca- 
tholic establishment  of  great  wealth  and  power,  and  under 
the  influence  of  one  of  the  most  biijoted  Catholic  courts 
in  Europe.  This  measure  has  now  the  experience  of  eigh- 
teen years  in  its  favour  ;  it  has  undergone  a  trial  of  four- 
teen years  of  revolution  such  as  the  world  never  witness- 
ed, aad  more  than  equal  to  a  century  less  covulsed  :  what 
have  been  its  effects  r  When  the  French  advanced  like  a 
torrent  within  a  few  days  march  of  Vienna,  the  Hunga- 
rians rose  in  a  mass  ;  they  formed  what  they  call  the  sa- 
cred insurrection  to  defend  tlieir  sovereign,  their  rights, 
and  liberties  now  common  to  all  ;  and  the  apprehension  of 
their  approach  dictated  to  the  reluctant  Bonaparte  the  im- 
mediate signature  of  the  treaty   of  Leoben,  the  Romish 


7e 

hierarchy  of  Hungary  exists  in  all  its  former  splendor, 
and  opulence  ;  never  has  the  slightest  attempt  been  made 
to  diminish  it ;  and  those  revolutionary  principles  to  which 
so  large  a  portion  of  civilized  Europe  has  been  sacri- 
ficed, have  here  failed  in  making  the  smallest  successful 
inroad. 

The  whole  history   of  this   proceeding  of  the  Hunga- 
rian Diet  is  so  extraordinary,  and  such  an  admirable  com- 
ment Uj  on  the  Protestaniism  of  Mr.    Spencer  Perceval, 
that  I  must  coriipel  you  to  read  a  few  short  extracts  from 
the    law  itsel;  :    "  The    Protestants   of  both  confessions, 
shall  in  religious  matters,  de|.end  upon  their  own  spiritual 
superiors    alone.      The  Protestants    may    likewise  retain 
the.r  trivial,   and   grammar  schools.     The   church   dues 
which  the  Protestants  have  hitherto  paid  to  the  Catholip 
Parish    Priests,   School-masters,  or  other  'such   Officers, 
cither  in   money,  productions,   or  1<  hour,  shall  in  future 
entirely  cease,  and  after  three  months  Irom  the  publishing 
of  this   law,  be  no   n)Ore  any   where  demanded.     In  the 
building  or  repairing  of  churches,  parsonage  houses,  and 
schools,  the  Protestants  are   not  obliged   to  assist  the  Ca- 
tholics with  labour,   nor  fhe  Catholics  the  Protestants. — 
The  pioHs  foundations,  and  donations  of  the  Protestants, 
which  already  exist,  or  which  in  future  may  be  made  for 
their  churches,  ministers,  schools  and  students,  hospitals, 
orphan- houses,  and  poor,  cannot  be  taken  from  them  un- 
der any  pretext,  nor  yet  the  care  of  them  ;   but  rather  the 
unimpeded  administration  shall  be  entrusted  to  those  from 
among  them  to  whom  it  legaily  belongs,  and  those  lounda- 
tions  which  may  have  been  taken  from  them  under  the  last 
government  shall  be  returned  to  them  without  delay.     All 
aflairs  of  marriage  of  the  Protes  ants  arc  left  to  their  own 
consistories  ;  all  landlords  and  masters  of  families,  under 
the  penalty  of  public  prosecution,  are  ordered  not  to  pre-' 
vent  their  subjects  and  servants,  whether  they  be  Catho- 
l.c,  or  Protestant,  from  the  observance  ef  the  festivals, 
and  ceremon  es  of  their  religion,  &c.  &c.  ikc." — By  what 
strange  chances  are  mankind  influenced  !  A  little  Catholic 
barrister  of  Vienna  might  have  raised  the  cry  of  No  Pro- 
tes trmt  ism,  awd  Hungary  would  have  panted  for  the  arrival 
ol  a  I'rencharmy,  as  much  as  Ireland  does  at  this  moment; 
arms  would  have  been  searched  for  ;  Lutheran  and  Calva- 
nist  houses  entered   in    the  dead    of  the  night  ;  and  the- 
strength  of  Aus  ria  exhausted  in  guarding  a  country  from 
which,  under  the  present  liberal  system,   she  may  expect. 


77 

in  a  moment  of  danger,  the  most  powerful  aid  :  and  let  h 
be  remembered,  that  this  memorable  example  of  political 
wisdom  took  place  at  a  period  when  many  great  mo- 
narchies were  }  et  unconquered  in  Europe  ;  in  a  country 
where  the  two  religious  parties  were  equal  in  number  ; 
and  where  it  is  impossible  to  suppose  inditference  in  thet 
party  which  relinquished  its  exclusive  privileges.  Under 
all  these  circumstances,  the  measure  was  carried  in  the 
Hungarian  Diet  by  a  majority  of  two  hundred  and  eighty 
to  one  hundred  and  twenty.  In  a  few  weeks,  we  shall  see 
every  concession  denied  to  the  Catholics  by  a  much  larger 
majority  of  Protestants,  at  a  moment  when  every  other 
power  is  subjugated  but  ourselves,  and  in  a  country  whei'e 
the  oppressed  are  four  times  as  numerous  as  their  op- 
pressors. So  much  for  the  w.sdom  of  our  ancestors — 
so  much  for  the  nineteenth  century — so  much  for  the 
superiority  of  the  English  over  all  the  nations  of  the  Con- 
tinent. 

Are  you  not  sensible,  let  me  ask  you,  of  the  absurdity 
of  trusting  the  lowcbt  Catholics  with  offices  correspondent 
to  their  situation  m  life,  and  of  denying  such  y>rivilegeto 
the  higher  r  A  Catholic  may  serve  in  the  Mditia,  but  a 
Catholic  cannot  come  into  Parhament  ;  in  the  latter  case 
you  suspect  combination,  and  in  the  former  case,  you  sus- 
pect no  cojnbination  ;  you  deliberately  arm  ten  or  twenty 
thousand  of  the  lo^^estof  the  Catholic  people;  and  the 
moment  you  come  to  a  class  of  men  whose  education, 
honour,  and  taJcnts,  seem  to  render  all  mischief  les'i 
probable,  then  you  see  the  da!)ger  of  employing  a  Catho- 
lic ;  and  t  ling  to  v  our  investigating  tests,  and  disabling 
3av\s.  if  von  tell  me  vou  have  enough  of  members  ot 
Parliament,  and  not  enough  of  MiLtia,  without  the  Catho- 
lics, I  beg  '.cave  to  remi  d  you,  that  by  employing  the 
physical  force  of  any  sect,  at  the  s;:me  time  when  you 
leave  them  in  a  state  of  utter  disallection,  yoa  are  not 
adding  strength  to  your  armies,  but  weakness  and  rain  ; 
If  you  want  the  vigour  of  their  common  people,  yoir 
must  not  disgrace  their  nobility,  and  insult  their  Priest- 
hootl. 

1  thought  that  the  terror  of  the  Pope  had  been  confined 
to  the  Umits  of  the  nursery,  and  merely  employed  as  a 
means  to  induce  young  snaster  io  enter  into  his  small - 
clotiics  with  greater  speed,  and  to  eat  his  breakfast  with 
greater  attention  to  decorum.  For  these  purposes,  the 
the  name  of  the  Pope  i?  admirable  ;  but  why  ptjsh  it  be- 


c 


78 

yondi  Why  not   leave  to   Lord  Kawkesbury  all  farthei* 
enumeration  of  the  Pope's  powers  ?    For  a  whole  century, 
you  have  been  exposed  to  the  enmity  of  France,  and  your 
succession  was-disputed  in  two  rebellions  ;  what  could  the 
Pope  do  at  the  period  when  there  was  a  serious  struggle 
whether  England  should    be  Protestant  or  Catholic,  and 
when  the  issue  was  completely  doubtful  ?  Could  the  Pope 
induce  the  Irish  to  rise  in  1715  ?   Could  he  induce  them  to 
rise  in  1745  ?   You  bad  no  Catholic  enemy,  when  half  this 
island  was  in  arms  ;  and  what  did  the  Pope  attempt  in  the 
last  rebellion  in  Ireland  ?  But  if  he  had  as  much  power 
over  the  minds  of  the  Irish  as  Mr.   Wilberforce  has  over 
the  mind  of  a  young  Methodist  converted  the  preceding 
quarter,  is  this  a  reason  why  we  are  to  disgust  men  who 
may  be  acted  upon  in  such  a  manner  by  a  foreign  power  ; 
or  is  it  not  an  additional  reason  why  we  should  raise  up 
every  barrier  of  affection,  and  kindness  against  the  mis- 
chiei  of  foreign   influence  ?   But  the  true  answer  is,  the 
mischief  does  not  exist.     Gog  and  Magog  have  produced 
as  much  influence  upon  human  affairs  as  the  Pope  has  done 
for  this  half  century  past  ;  and,  by  spoiling  him  of  his  pos- 
sessions, and  degrading  him  in  the  eyes  of  all  Europe,  Bo- 
naparte has  not  taken  quite  the  proper  metb.od  of  increas- 
ing his  influence. 

But  why  not  a  Catholic  King,  as  well  as  a  Catholic 
Member  of  Parliament,  or  of  the  Cabinet  ?   Because  it  is 
probable  that  the  one  would  be  mischievous,  and  the  othev 
not.     A  Catholic  King  might  struggle  against  the  Protes- 
tantism of  the  country,  and  if  the  struggle  was  not  success- 
ful, it  would  at  least  be  dangerous  :  but  theeflPorts  of  any 
other  Catholic  would   be  quite  insignificant,  and  his  hope 
of  success  so  small,  that  it  is  quite  improbable  the  eflfort 
would  ever  be  made  :  my  argument  is,  that  in  so  Protest- 
ant a  country  as  Great  Britam,  the  character  of  her  Par- 
liaments and  her  Cabinet  could  not  be  changed  by  the  few 
Catholics  who  would  ever  find  their  way  to  the  one,  or  the 
other  ;   but  the  power  of  the  crown  is  immeasurably  greater 
than  the  power  which  the  Catholics  could  obtain  from  any 
other  species  of  authority  in  the  State  ;  and  it  does  not  fol- 
low, because  the  lesser  degree  of  power  is  innocent,  that 
the  greater  should  be  so  too.     As  for  the  stress  you  lay 
upon  the  danger  of  a  Catholic  Chancellor,  I  have  not  the 
least  hesitation  in  saying,  that  his  appointment  would  no 
do  a  ten  thousandth  part  of  the  mischief  to  the  English 
church,  that  might  be  done  by  a  methodistical  chancellor 


»ri 


79 

of  the  true  Clapham  breed  ;  and  I  request  to  know,  if  it  is 
really  so  very  necessary  that  a  chancellor  should  be  of  the 
religion  of  the  church  of  England,  how  many  chancellors 
you  have  had  within  the  last  century  who  have  been  bred 
up  in  the  Presbyterian  religion  ?  And  again,  how  many 
you  have  had  who  notoriously  have  been  without  any  reli- 
gion  at  all  ?  - 

Why  are  you  to  suppose  that  eligibility,  and  election 
are  the  same  thing,  and  that  all  the  cabinet  xvill  be  Catho- 
lics whenever  all  the  Cabmet  w^ay  be  Catholics  ?  You  have 
a  right  you  say,  to  suppose  an  extreme  case,  and  to  argue 
upon  it — so  have  I :  and  I  will  suppose  that  the  hundred 
Irish  members  will  one  day  come  down  in  a  body,  and  pass 
a  law  compelling  the  King  to  reside  in  Dublin.  I  will 
suppose,  that  the  Scotch  members,  b}'^  a  similar  strata- 
gem, will  lay  England  under  a  krge  contribution  of  meal 
and  sulphur  :  no  measure  is  without  objection  if  you  sweep 
the  whole  horizon  for  danger ;  it  is  not  sufficient  to  tell 
me  of  what  may  hapren,  but  you  must  shew  me  a  rational 
probability  that  it  will  happen  :  after  all,  I  might,  con- 
trary to  my  real  Ojnnion,  admit  all  your  clangers  to  exist ; 
it  is  enough  for  me  to  contend,  that  all  other  dangers  ta- 
ken together  are  not  equal  to  the  danger  of  losing  Ireland 
from  disaffection  and  invasion. 

lam  astonished  to  see  you,  and  many  good  and  well- 
meaning  clergymen  beside  you,  pointing  the  Catholics  in 
such  detestable  colours  ;  two-thirds,  at  least,  of  Europe, 
are  Catholics — they  are  Christians,  though  mistaken  Chris- 
tians ;  how  can  I  possibly  admit,  that  any  sect  of  Chris- 
tians, and  above  all,  that  the  oldest,  arid  the  most  numer- 
ous  sect  of  Christians,  are  incapable  of  fulfilling  the  com- 
mon duties,  and  relations  of  life  ;  though  I  do  differ  frorav 
them  in  many  particulars,  God  forbid  I  should  give  such 
an  handle  to  infidelity,  and  subscribe  to  such  a  blasphemy 
against  our  common  religion  ! 

Do  you  think  mankind  never  change  their  opinions, 
without  formally  expressing,  and  confessing  that  change  f 
When  you  quote  the  decisions  of  ancient  Catholic  Coun- 
cils, are  you  prepared  to  defend  all  the  decrees  of  English 
convocations,  and  universities  since  the  reign  of  Queen 
Elizabeth  ?  I  could  soon  make  you  sick  of  your  uncandid 
industry  against  the  Catholics,  and  bring  you  to  allow, 
that  it  is  better  to  forget  times  past,  and  to  judge  and  be 
judged,  by  present  opinions j  and  present  practice. 


86 

I  must  bes;^  to  be  excused  from  explaining,  and  refuting' 
all  the  mistakes  abcjut  the  Catholics  made  by  my  Lord  . 
Redesdale  ;  and  I  must  do  th'at  nobleman  the  justice  to 
sa}',  that  he  has  been  treated  with  great  disrespect.—^ 
Could  anv  thi.  g  be  move  indecent,  than  to  nakeit  a  morn- 
ing lounge  in  Dublin  to  call  upon  his  lordship,  and  to  cram 
him  with  Arabian-night  stories  about  the  Catholics  ?  Ts 
this  proper  behaviour  to  therej  resentati^e  of  majesty,  the 
child  of  Themis,  and  the  kee  er  of  the  conscience  in  West 
Britain  ?  Whoever  reads  the  Le  ters  of  the  Catholic  Bi- 
shops, in  the  Appendix  to  Sir  John  Hij)[etly's  very  sensi- 
ble book,  will  see  to  what  an  excess  this  practice  must 
have  been  carried,  with  the  pleasing  and  Protestan  no- 
bleman whose  name  I  have  mentioned,  and  from  thence  I 
wish  you  to  receive  your  answer  about  excommunication, 
and  all  the  trash  which  is  talked  against  the  Catholics. 

A  sort  of  notion  ha-^,  by  some  means  or  another,  crept 
into   the  world,  th;!t  difference  of  religion   would  render 
men  unfit  to  perform  together  the  offices  of  common  and 
civil  life  :  that  Brother  Wood  and    Brother   Grose  could 
not  travel   together  the  same  circu.t  if  they  differed    in 
creed,  nor  Cocke. 1  and   Mingay  be  engaged  in  the  same 
cause,  if  Cockell  was  a  Catholic,  and  Mingay  a  Muggle- 
tonian.     It  is  supposed  that  Huskisson,  and  Sir  Harry  En- 
glefield  would  squabble  behind  the  Speaker's  chair  about 
the  Council  of  Lateran,  and  many  a  turnpike  bill  miscarry- 
by  the   sarcastica:  controversies  of  Mr.  Hawkins  Brown 
and  Sir  John  Throchmorton,  u;)on   the  real   presence.     I 
wish  I  could   see  some  of  these  symptoms  of  -earnestness 
upon  the  subject  of  religion,  but   ii  really   seems  to  me, 
that  in   the  present  state  of  society,   men  no  more  think 
about  enquiring  concerning  each   other's  faith  than  they 
do  concerning  the  colour  of  each  other's  skins.  There  may 
have  been   times  in  England  when  the  quarter   sessions 
r/ould  have  been  disturbed  by  theological  polemics  :    but 
now,  after  a  Catholic  justice  had  once  been  seen  on  the 
bench,  and  it  had  been  clearly  ascertained  th  't  he  spoke 
English, had  no  tail,  onl}^  a  single  row  oi  teeth,  and  that  he 
l.oved  port  wine — after  all  "rhe  scandalous  and  infamous  re- 
ports of  his  physical  conformation  had  been  clearly  proved 
to  be  false — he  would  be  reckoned  a  jolly  fclioA^,  and  very- 
superior  in  fiavourto  a  sly  Presbyterian.    Nothing  in  fact, 
can  be  rnore  uncandid,  and  unphilosopbical,*  than  to  spy 

*  ?'7t'fcLord]3:u;on,  Pugald,  Stewart,  Locke,  and  Descartes. 


81 

that  a  man  has  a  tail,  because  you  cannot  agree  with  him 
upon  religious  subjects  ;  it  appears  to  be  ludicrous,  but  I 
am  convinced  ;t  has  done  infinite  mischief  to  the  Catholics, 
and  made  a  very  serious  impression  upon  the  minds  of  ma- 
nv  gentlemen  of  large  landed  property. 

*^In  talking  of  the  impossibility  of  Catholic,  and  Protes- 
tant living  together  with  equal  privilege  under  the  same 
government,  do  you  forget  the  Cantons  of  Switzerland  t 
You  might  have  seen  there  a  Pro  estant  congregation  go- 
ing into  a  church  which  had  just  been  quitted  by  a  Catho- 
lic congregation  ;  and  I  will  venture  to  say  that  the  Swiss 
Catholics  were  more  bigotted  to  their  religion  than  any 
people  in  the  whole  world.     Did  the  Kiigs  of  Prussia  ever 
refuse  to  employ  a  Catholic  ?  Would  Frederick  the  Great 
have  rejected  an  able  man  on  this  account  ?   We  have  seen 
Prince  Czartcrinski  a  Catholic  Secretary  of  State  in  Rus- 
sia: in  former  times, a  Greek  patriarch  and  an  apostolic  vicav  . 
acted  together  in  the  most  perfect  harmony  in  Venice,  and 
we  have  seen  the  Emperor  of  Germany  in  modern  times 
entrusting  the  care  of  his  person,  and  the  command  of  his 
guard  to  a  Protestant  Prince,  Ferdinand  of  Wirtemberg  : 
but  what  are  all  these  things  to  Mr.   Perceval  ?   He  has 
looked  at  human  naiure  from  the  top  of  Hampstead  Hill, 
and  has  not  a  thought    beyond  the   little   sphere  of  bis 
own  vision.     "  The  snail,  say  the  Hindoos,  sees  nothing 
but  its  own  shell  and  thmks  it  the  grandest  palace  in  the 
universe." 

I  now  take  a  final  leave  of  this  subject  of  Ireland  ;  the 
only  difficult}'  in  discussing  it  is  a  want  of  resistance,  a 
want  of  something  difficult  to  unravel,  and  something  dark 
to  illumine  ;  to   agi.ate  such  a  question  is  to  beat  the  air 
with  a  club,  and  cut  down  gnats  with  a  scimitar  ;  it  is  a 
prostitution  of  industry,  and  a  waste  of  strength.     If  a 
man  says  I  have  a  good  place,  and  I  do  not  choose  to  lose 
it,  this  mode  of  arguing  upon  the  Catholic  question  I  can 
well  underst.md  ;  but  that  any  human  being  with  an  under- 
standing two  degrees  elevated  above  that  of  an  anabaptist 
preacher,  should  conscientiously  contend  for  the  expedi- 
ency, and  propriety  of  leaving  the  Irish  Catholics  in  their 
present  state,  and   of  subjecting  us  to  such  tremendous 
peril  in   the  present  condition  of  the  world,  it  is  utterlj' 
out  of  my  power  to  conceive.     Such  a  measure  as  tjie  Ca- 
tholic question  is  entirely  beyond  the  common  game  of 
politics  ;  it  is  a  measure  in  which  all  parties   ought  to 
acquiesce,  in  order  to  preserve  the  place  where,  and  th^' 
J. 


83 

stake  for  which  they  play.  If  Ireland  is  gone,  where  are 
jobs  ?  where  are  reversions  ?  where  is  my  brother,  Lord 
Arden  ?  where  are  my  dear  and  near  relations  ?  The  game 
is  up,  and  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons  will  be 
sent  as  a  present  to  the  menagerie  at  Paris.  We  talk  of 
waiting  from  particular  considerations,  as  if  centuries  of 
joy,  and  prosperity  were  before  us  :  in  the  next  ten  years 
our  fate  must  be  decided  ;  we  shall  know,  long  before  that 
period,  whether  we  can  bear  up  against  the  miseries  by 
which  we  are  threatened,  or  not .  and  yet,  in  the  very 
midst  of  our  crisis,  v.e  are  enjoined  to  abstain  from  the 
most  certain  means  of  increasing  our  strength,  and  ad- 
vised to  wait  for  the  remedy  tdl  the  disease  is  removed  by 
death,  or  health.  And  now,  instead  of  the  plain  and  manly 
policy  of  increasing  unanimity  at  home,  by  equalising 
rights  and  privileges,  what  is  the  ignorant,  arrogant,  and 
wicked  system  which  has  been  pursued  ?  Such  a  career  of 
madness  and  of  folly,  was  I  believe,  never  run  in  so  short 
a  period.  The  vigour  of  the  ministry  is  like  the  vigour 
oi  a  grave-digger,  the  tomb  becomes  more  ready,  and 
more  wide  lor  every  eflbrt  which  they  make.  There  is 
nothing  which  it  is  worth  while  either  to  take,  or  to  retain, 
and  a  constant  train  of  ruinousexpeditions  have  been  kept 
up.  J^-very  Englishman  felt  proud  of  the  integrity  of  his 
country  :  the  character  of  the  country  is  lost  for  ever. — it 
is  of  the  utmost  consequence  to  a  commercial  people  at 
war  with  the  grea  est  part  of  Europe,  that  there  sliould  be 
a  free  entry  of  neutrals  into  the  enemy's  ports  ;  the  neu- 
trals who  carried  our  manufactures,  we  have  not  only  ex- 
cluded, but  we  have  comj>elled  them  to  declare  war  against 
us. — It  was  our  interest  to  make  a  good  peace,  or  convince 
our  own  people  that  it  could  not  be  obtained  ;  we  have 
tiot  made  a  [  eace,  and  we  have  convinced  the  people  of 
nothing  but  of  the  arrogance  of  the  foreign  secretary  : 
and  all  this  has  taken  place  in  the  short  space  of  a  year, 
because  a  King's  Bench  Barrister,  and  a  writer  of  epi- 
grams turned  into  ministers  of  state  were  determined  to 
shew  country  gentlen  en,  that  the  late  administration  had 
no  vigour,  in  the  mean  time  commerce  stands  still,  ma- 
nufactures perish,  Ireland  is  more  and  more  irritated,  In- 
dia is  threatened,  fresh  taxes  are  accumulated  upon  the 
wretched  people,  the  war  is  carried  on  without  it  being 
possible  to  conceive  any  one  single  object  which  a  rational 
being  can  propose  to  himself  by  its  continuation,  and  in 
the  midst  of  this  unparalleled  insanity  we  are  told  that  the 


'(A 


83 

Continent  is  to  be  reconquered  by  the  want  of  rhubarb 
and  plumbs.*  A  better  spirit  than  exists  in  the  English 
peo  le  never  existed  ih  any  peOj  le  in  the  world;  it  has 
\>een  uiisdirecteci,  and  squandered  upon  party  j^urposesiu 
the  most  degradinor  and  scandalous  manner;  they  have 
been  Jed  to  believe  that  they  were  benefiting  the  commerce 
oi  England  by  cies  roying  the  commerce  of  America,  that 
they  were  defending  their  sovereign  by  perpetuating  the 
bigoted  oppression  of  their  fellow  subjects  ;  their  rulers 
and  their  guides  have  told  them  that  they  would  equal  the 
vigour  of  France  by  equalling  her  atrocity,  and  they  have 
gone  on  wasting  that  opulence,  patience,  and  courage, 
\\hich  if  husbanded  by  prudent,  and  moderate  counsels, 
might  have  proved  the  salvation  of  mankind.  The  same 
policy  of  turning  the  good  qualities  of  Englishmen  to 
their  own  destruction,  which  made  Mr.  Pitt  omnipotent, 
continues  his  power  to  those  who  resemble  him  only  in  his 
Tices  :  advantage  is  taken  of  the  loyalty  of  Englishmen, 
to  make  them  meanly  submissive ;  their  piety  is  turned 
into  persecution  ;  their  courage  into  useless  and  obstinate 
contention  ;  they  are  plundered  because  they  are  ready  to 
pay,  and  soothed  into  asinine  stupidity  because  they  are 
full  of  virtuous  patience.  If  England  must  perish  at  last, 
so  Jet  it  be  :  that  event  is  in  the  hands  of  God  ;  we  must 
dry  up  our  tears  and  submit.  But  that  England  should 
perish  swindling  and  stealing,  that  it  should  j)erish  waging 
war  against  lazar-houses  and  hospitals,  that  it  shouid  pe- 
rish persecuting  with  monastic  bigotry  ;  that  it  should 
calmly  give  itself  up  to  be  ruined  by  the  flashy  arrogance 
ot  one  man,  and  the  narrow  ianaticism  of  another  ;  these 
events  are  within  the  j^ower  of  human  beings,  and  I  did 
not  think  that  the  magnanimity  of  Englishmen  would  ever 
stoop  to  such  degradations. 

Longum  -valey 

PETER  PLYMLEY. 


*  Even  Allen  Park  (accustomed  as  he  has  always  been  to  be  delighted 
by  all  administi-ations)  says  it  is  too  bad  ;  and  Hall  and  Morris  are  said 
to  have  actually  blushed  in  one  of  the  divisions. 


THE  END. 


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